Small-amount invoices up to 250 euros: what a German receipt must show

In Germany, most of the receipts a freelancer collects in a normal week are small: the till slip from the stationery shop, the taxi receipt, the hardware store. For these, German VAT law has a simplified form called the small-amount invoice (Kleinbetragsrechnung). It needs far fewer mandatory details than a regular invoice, and you can still reclaim the input VAT (Vorsteuer) from it. That is convenient, but there are a few edges where receipts fail in practice, and they tend to be the same ones every time.

What counts as a small-amount invoice

The rule is § 33 of the VAT Implementation Ordinance (UStDV). An invoice whose total does not exceed 250 euros must contain at least four things (as of October 2026):

1. the full name and full address of the supplier,
2. the date of issue,
3. the quantity and type of goods, or the scope and type of the service,
4. the payment and the VAT on it as one gross amount, plus the applicable VAT rate. If the supply is VAT-exempt, a note saying so.

That is the whole list. Your own name as the recipient, an invoice number, the supplier's tax number, a separately stated net amount: none of these is required on a small-amount invoice. An ordinary supermarket or office-supply till slip usually ticks all four boxes on its own.

Watch out: the 250 euros refer to the total, meaning the gross amount including VAT. A purchase of 230 euros net plus 43.70 euros VAT comes to 273.70 euros gross, so it is no longer a small-amount invoice even though the net amount is under the line.

How it differs from a full invoice

Once a receipt crosses the limit, the full requirements of § 14 (4) UStG apply. The invoice must then also show, among other things, the name and address of the recipient (you), the supplier's tax number or VAT ID, a sequential invoice number, the date of supply, and the amounts split by VAT rate with the VAT stated separately.

The most common failure in practice is therefore not a missing VAT rate but a purchase over 250 euros documented only by a till slip. If you buy a monitor for 329 euros at an electronics store and walk out with the receipt alone, you formally do not have a proper invoice for the input VAT deduction. The fix is simple but has to happen in the shop: ask at the till or the service desk for an invoice made out to your business name.

Reclaiming VAT from a till slip

The fact that a till slip says so little does not weaken it. § 35 UStDV expressly lets you deduct input VAT from a small-amount invoice. You split the gross amount into net and VAT yourself, using the rate printed on the slip. At 19 percent the VAT is 19/119 of the gross amount; at 7 percent it is 7/107.

An example: printer paper and toner for 59.50 euros gross at 19 percent. The VAT is 59.50 × 19/119 = 9.50 euros, the net amount 50.00 euros. Those 9.50 euros go into your advance VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung) as input VAT.

The general conditions of § 15 UStG still apply: you must be a business, the purchase must be for the business, and you must actually hold the invoice. A receipt that survives only as a faded strip of thermal paper on which the VAT rate can no longer be read meets that last condition only with luck.

Tip: if a slip has items at different VAT rates, say office coffee at 7 percent and cleaning supplies at 19 percent, the rate must be identifiable for each item. The VAT may then be shown as one total under § 32 UStDV, provided the till computed it automatically. Most till systems also print a small per-rate breakdown at the bottom of the slip. Without either, you cannot split the VAT correctly.

When a till slip is not enough, even under 250 euros

§ 33 UStDV explicitly excludes three cases: invoices for intra-Community supplies (§ 6a UStG), for services where the VAT liability shifts to you as the recipient (reverse charge, § 13b UStG), and for distance sales under § 3c UStG. If you pay for a software subscription from a provider in another EU country, you will usually receive an invoice without VAT that shows your VAT ID. That is not a small-amount invoice but a regular invoice with a reverse-charge note, however small the amount.

The second point is e-invoicing. As German businesses move step by step to structured electronic invoices between each other, many people ask whether the till slip is affected. § 33 UStDV is clear: a small-amount invoice may always be transmitted as an "other invoice" (sonstige Rechnung), meaning on paper or as a plain PDF. The slip from the shop remains a valid document.

How long you have to keep it

Invoices you receive must be kept for eight years under § 14b UStG (as of October 2026). The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the invoice was issued, so a receipt from March 2026 has to be legible until the end of 2034.

For thermal paper that is a long time. Many slips are barely readable after two or three years in a folder. Keeping them digitally is permitted as long as the document is captured completely, remains unchanged and can be read at any time. A sharp photo taken right after the purchase, with date, amount and VAT rate visible, is therefore not just convenient; it is what actually carries the receipt through the retention period.

What this means for you

• Check the four mandatory details on the slip before you leave the shop: supplier address, date, type of goods, gross amount with VAT rate. If one is missing, ask for an invoice.
• Over 250 euros gross, always ask for an invoice in your name or business name. Doing it later is a hassle; in the shop it takes a minute.
• Mixed VAT rates: make sure the per-rate breakdown is printed on the slip.
• Foreign invoices with a reverse-charge note are not small-amount invoices. They need your VAT ID and are reported differently in the advance return.
• Photograph the slip on the day of purchase. No thermal paper reliably survives eight years; a photo does.

This is exactly where Bonro comes in: you photograph the slip, text recognition runs on your device, and merchant, date, gross amount, VAT rate and VAT amount are proposed as fields. If a value is uncertain, for instance because the rate was hard to read, that field is flagged so you check it before the receipt goes into the DATEV export for your accountant. Try Bonro