- How do I create an e-invoice for customers in other EU countries?
- What do the categories K, AE and G mean in XRechnung?
- Why is my 0% VAT invoice being rejected as an e-invoice?
- How do I report reverse charge on an e-invoice?
- Creating a tax-free delivery to Switzerland as an e-invoice
Legally compliant e-invoices with 0% VATVAT rules for exports
This article explains how to correctly send invoices to customers abroad as e-invoices in ZUGFeRD or XRechnung format. Where the tax rate is 0%, simply stating the percentage is insufficient; the e-invoice requires a specific category, such as intra-Community supply or export, to ensure successful processing in the recipient’s system.
TYRIOS determines these codes automatically based on the stored tax matrix and the product type. Through this automation, all necessary legal notices and category codes are correctly embedded in the XML data record, ensuring that the e-invoices comply with legal requirements and remain legally compliant without the need for manual intervention.
Creating e-invoices for other EU countries and third countriesAutomatisierte Steuerkategorien für den globalen Handel
When your business expands beyond national borders, TYRIOS takes care of the complex task of assigning tax categories for you. Thanks to the intelligent tax matrix, goods and services are automatically classified in accordance with EU law or third-country regulations, ensuring that every e-invoice reaches the recipient in a legally compliant and error-free manner.
Based on your customer’s location and the type of products, the system immediately identifies which exemption codes and legal notices are required, allowing you to focus entirely on your core business.
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Issuing an invoice for goods delivered to the EU
Start by creating an invoice for a company in another EU country, for example in Austria. Ensure that a valid VAT number is stored in the customer master (delivery address) . When you add a physical product, the tax matrix automatically recognises the 0% VAT rate. In the e-invoice, this item is specifically marked as category ‘K’ (intra-Community supply, code VATEX-EU-IC) and the closing text is automatically supplemented with the appropriate note.
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Add services to the invoice
Add a service item or a free-text item to the e-invoice. Important: For free-text items, you must explicitly select ‘Service’ under ‘Type of service’ in the sidebar. TYRIOS will then show this item on the e-invoice as ‘Reverse Charge’ (category AE, code VATEX-EU-AE). This ensures that the e-invoice contains a separate, correct tax breakdown for each category – whether goods or services.
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Set the delivery date and publish the invoice
Enter the date in the 'Delivery date' field, as this is mandatory for intra-Community supplies in category K. Then click on 'Publish'. The system checks in the background whether all mandatory fields, such as the buyer’s VAT number and the country of delivery, have been completed. If any data is missing, the system will alert you with an error message whilst the invoice is still a draft.
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Check the legal notices in the PDF
Open the completed invoice PDF for a final check. Below the line items, you will now automatically find the legally required notes such as ‘Tax-exempt intra-Community supply’ or ‘Tax liability of the recipient (reverse charge)’. TYRIOS ensures that each note appears only once, even if it has already been entered manually in the closing text of the invoice.
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Handling exports to third countries
Create an invoice for a customer outside the EU, for example in Switzerland, and add a physical product. When you publish the invoice, the system automatically recognises it as an export. The e-invoice uses category ‘G’ (export, code VATEX-EU-G). The PDF document will also automatically display the correct note ‘Tax-exempt export delivery’ for your customer .
Specifications for tax categories and system validationImportant information and tips on e-invoicing
Please note the following technical requirements to ensure your e-invoices are processed smoothly and to avoid system errors:
- Mandatory field: Delivery date: An EU goods delivery (Category K) cannot be published as an e-invoice without a delivery date being entered. The system automatically aborts the process with an error message to prevent you from sending an invalid invoice.
- Tax-relevant address: For correct tax calculation, the delivery address is always decisive in the system, not the billing address.
Items are classified into tax categories according to fixed rules to ensure compliance with the EN 16931 standard:
- Standard tax rate (Category S): If you create an invoice with 19% VAT, it will always be exported as Category ‘S’. This applies regardless of whether the item is a good or a service.
- Automatic tax blocks: For mixed invoices containing both goods and services, TYRIOS automatically creates separate tax blocks in the e-invoice for each required category.