What does §19 UStG mean for your invoices?
As a small business (Kleinunternehmer), you don’t pay VAT to the tax office, so you may not show it on your invoices. A correct §19 invoice contains:
- all the usual mandatory details (name/address, sequential number, date, goods or service)
- no VAT amount and no tax rate
- a note such as: “Gemäß § 19 UStG wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet.” (“No VAT is charged in accordance with § 19 UStG.”)
If you accidentally show VAT as a small business, you owe it to the tax office – a common and expensive mistake. That’s why it matters that the invoice is generated correctly from the start.
The revenue thresholds – as of 2026
The thresholds changed on January 1, 2025, and many sources online still quote the old figures. The current rules (legal status: August 2026):
| Germany (§ 19 UStG) | Austria (§ 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG 1994) | |
|---|---|---|
| Prior-year revenue | at most €25,000 | — |
| Current year | at most €100,000 | at most €55,000 gross |
| Effect when exceeded | The €25,000 threshold takes effect at the turn of the year, the €100,000 threshold immediately – the very revenue that exceeds it is already taxable | Note the tolerance rule, clarify with your tax advisor |
The difference matters more than it looks: with the €100,000 threshold, your status doesn’t end next year but with the revenue that exceeds it. Belegio keeps an eye on both figures and alerts you on the overview before things get tight. Austria, by contrast, has only one threshold, but with a tolerance rule.
→ What else is different in Austria
Note: This article does not replace tax advice. If you have questions about your specific tax situation, please contact your tax advisor.
The most expensive mistake: showing VAT anyway
If a small-business invoice shows a VAT amount, you owe that amount to the tax office — even if you never collected it and even though you aren’t actually liable for VAT. This follows from § 14c UStG, the so-called incorrect tax statement (unrichtiger Steuerausweis).
The typical ways into this mistake are everyday ones: a template left over from the days of standard VAT taxation (Regelbesteuerung); an invoice quickly written by hand; or Shopify tax settings that still apply a rate to your products. A correction is possible, but it takes effort and goes through a corrected invoice to the customer.
What belongs on the invoice — and what doesn’t
| Detail | Small business | Standard VAT taxation |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential invoice number | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Name and address of both parties | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Tax number or VAT ID | Tax number is enough | One of the two |
| Tax rate and tax amount | Must not appear | Mandatory |
| Note on the tax exemption | Mandatory | Only for tax-exempt sales |
| Date of delivery or service | Mandatory | Mandatory |
The VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.) is where things often go wrong: as a small business you don’t need it for domestic business, and then it doesn’t belong on the invoice either. That’s why Belegio flags it when the small-business scheme and a stored VAT ID are set at the same time — that’s almost always an oversight.
The problem with Shopify out of the box
Shopify is built around showing tax rates. The automatic order confirmation is not a §19-compliant invoice, and the tax settings aren’t designed to produce a clean invoice without VAT including the exemption note. If you do it manually, you risk forgetting the note or creating gaps in your number sequence.
With Belegio: §19 invoices at the flip of a switch
Belegio is a Shopify app that creates your invoices automatically – including a small-business mode. Here’s how to set it up:
- Install Belegio from the Shopify App Store.
- Turn on the small-business switch in the settings.
- Import your company details from Shopify with one click, add your logo and brand color.
From then on, Belegio automatically creates an invoice without VAT for every paid order, with the legal note for your country of establishment – §19 UStG in Germany, § 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG 1994 in Austria – and emails it to your customer.
Deliveries to other EU countries
Since 2025, small businesses can also deliver tax-free to other EU countries if they are registered for it and hold an EX identification number (EX-Kennnummer). If you store it in Belegio, the delivery country decides the note: domestically the national note, in other EU countries the EU small-business scheme including your EX number, in non-EU countries the tax-exempt export delivery. Without an EX number, the national note applies everywhere.
What happens if you exceed the threshold?
If your revenue grows beyond the threshold, you switch to standard VAT taxation and then show VAT. In Belegio you turn off the switch for this – from the switchover date, the app creates invoices with the correct VAT shown. International cases such as the One-Stop-Shop procedure for EU B2C or reverse charge for EU B2B are then covered automatically as well.
The founding year and switching mid-year
If you start your business partway through the year, there is no prior year against which the €25,000 threshold could be measured. In that case, only the current year’s revenue counts. If you start in October and stay below the threshold until New Year’s Eve, you are a small business — in the following year, this short period then counts as the prior year.
Switching mid-year is the case that causes the most confusion in day-to-day shop operations. Invoices created before the switch remain small-business invoices — VAT is not added to them retroactively. Belegio fixes the tax case when the invoice is created, for exactly this reason: a document should show the legal situation that applied when it was issued, not today’s. From the moment you switch, new invoices are created with VAT shown.
Keeping an eye on the revenue thresholds
The €100,000 threshold takes effect immediately — not at the turn of the year. The revenue with which you exceed it is already taxable. If you only notice this when closing the year, you may have spent months writing invoices without VAT on which VAT is now due.
That’s why Belegio continuously checks your annual revenue against both thresholds and alerts you on the overview before things get close — separately for the case “taxable next year” and the case “threshold already exceeded”. If you deliver to other EU countries with an EX identification number, the national thresholds of the destination countries and the EU-wide €100,000 threshold come into play too; the overview keeps track of those as well.
This is a calculation aid, not a tax review: what counts is what’s actually in your bookkeeping, and the thresholds change from time to time.
When voluntarily opting out pays off
The small-business scheme isn’t mandatory. You can waive it with the tax office and switch to standard VAT taxation, but you’re then bound to that for several years. This can make sense in two cases.
- You have high input VAT amounts — for example because you buy stock, purchase tools or invest in warehousing. As a small business, you can’t deduct the VAT included in those costs.
- You sell mostly to businesses. For them, the VAT amount is a pass-through item, while an invoice without VAT takes away their input tax deduction.
Conversely, the scheme makes sense if you sell mostly to private customers: the final price stays the same, but without VAT, more of it stays with you. The decision has consequences for years — discuss it with your tax advisor rather than making it in passing.
The preview shows your taxation, not just any
A small but practical point: when you pick a layout in the settings, the preview shows the document exactly as it will look for you — as a small business, that means 0 percent and your legal note, not a made-up 19 percent. That sounds obvious, but for a long time it wasn’t: a merchant from Austria pointed it out to us because her preview showed German tax rates that will never appear on her invoices.
A common question here: does the number sequence have to start over when you switch? No. The sequential number belongs to your business, not to the type of taxation. It simply continues across the switch — a restart would actually put the unbroken sequence at risk, because two series would exist that nobody could clearly tell apart anymore.
Selling to business customers as a small business
One point that rarely stands out in the shop, but does for the customer: because your invoice shows no VAT, a business customer can’t claim input tax from it. For them, your gross price is the final price, whereas with a competitor under standard VAT taxation they only bear the net amount.
When selling to private customers, this is your advantage — at the same final price, more stays with you. If you sell mostly to businesses, the effect reverses. That’s not an argument against the small-business scheme, but it belongs in your thinking if you’re considering opting out.
Mandatory details and retention at a glance
The general requirements apply to small businesses too: complete invoice details, sequential number ranges, and retention of your invoices (10 years under § 147 AO). Belegio assigns the numbers automatically in order, archives your documents so you can retrieve them, and hosts exclusively in Frankfurt am Main – the data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR (AV-Vertrag) is concluded during setup.
