XRechnung is the German national e-invoicing standard, developed by the KoSIT (Koordinierungsstelle für IT-Standards) on behalf of the German government. It is a profile of EN 16931 using the UN/CEFACT CII XML syntax and has been mandatory for invoices to German federal authorities since 27 November 2020.
Unlike ZUGFeRD, XRechnung is a pure XML format — there is no embedded PDF. This makes it fully machine-processable but not directly human-readable without a viewer.
Key facts
- Published by KoSIT (German government IT standards body)
- Syntax: UN/CEFACT CII (pure XML, no PDF wrapper)
- Mandatory for B2G invoicing to German federal authorities since 2020
- Version: XRechnung 3.x (aligned with EN 16931)
- Validated by Schematron rules published by KoSIT