Invoice without VAT: § 13b UStG for construction services (reverse charge)

What the reverse charge means

Normally the supplying business owes the VAT: it shows it in the invoice and pays it to the tax office. Under § 13b UStG this is reversed: the recipient of the service owes the tax. It pays it over and can usually deduct it at the same time as input tax. For you as contractor (Auftragnehmer), this means: invoice net, without a separate statement of tax.

Which services are affected?

§ 13b para. 2 no. 4 UStG names construction services, including supplies of work and materials and other services in connection with land that serve to produce, repair, maintain, alter or remove buildings, with the exception of planning and supervision services.

Things, fittings and machines that are permanently installed in a building or structure and cannot be moved without destroying or altering the building also count as land.

Who must owe the tax?

Under § 13b para. 5 sentence 2 UStG, the recipient of the service owes the tax if it is a business that regularly provides corresponding services. It does not matter whether it uses the specific service for a construction service of its own.

As proof: “This is to be assumed if the competent tax office has issued it a certificate valid at the time the transaction was carried out and limited to three years at most.” As contractor, you should ask the customer for this certificate before issuing the invoice and file it in the project folder.

In the view of the tax authorities, a business provides construction services on a sustained basis at least when they make up at least 10 per cent of its worldwide turnover (section 13b.3 UStAE). Anyone who holds such a certificate from the tax office (form USt 1 TG) owes the tax as recipient of the service, on this view, even if they do not show it to the supplier. The current decree is authoritative; clarify the details with your tax adviser.

What must be in the invoice

If the business carries out a service under § 13b para. 2 for which the recipient owes the tax, it is obliged under § 14a para. 5 UStG to issue an invoice with the statement “Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers”. The separate statement of tax (§ 14 para. 4 sentence 1 no. 8 UStG) then falls away.

The general mandatory details also apply: names and addresses, tax number or VAT ID number, period of the service, net amount, invoice number and date.

When the tax arises is governed by § 13b para. 2: on issue of the invoice, at the latest at the end of the calendar month following performance of the service. Under para. 4, this also applies to partial payments already received before performance (interim payments).

When both are mistaken

§ 13b para. 5 UStG contains a protective rule: if the recipient of the service and the supplying business, in cases of doubt, both assumed that the conditions were met, although this was objectively not correct given the nature of the transactions, the recipient is nevertheless deemed to be the taxable person, provided this causes no loss of tax. This is not an invitation to guess: anyone who knows the conditions must check them.

How § 13b affects retention and construction withholding tax

• Security retention (Sicherheitseinbehalt): For invoices without VAT under § 13b, the VAT is disregarded when calculating the retention (§ 17 para. 6 no. 1 VOB/B). See Security retention and surety bond.
• Construction withholding tax: applies in addition and independently if the conditions are met. See Construction withholding tax.

Typical mistakes

• Invoice without VAT to a private customer or a business without construction services of its own.
• No proof: the customer’s certificate is missing, the assumption is unsupported.
• Note forgotten: “Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers” is missing.
• Mixed invoice: construction service and supply in one invoice without a clear separation.
• Abschlagsrechnung (interim invoice) still with VAT, Schlussrechnung (final invoice) without.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and status

• § 13b UStG – recipient of the service as taxable person (checked against the statutory text in the BauWalker corpus)
• § 14a para. 5 UStG – additional duties when issuing invoices
• § 17 para. 6 no. 1 VOB/B – provision of security
• § 14c UStG – incorrect or unauthorised statement of tax (checked against the statutory text in the BauWalker corpus)
• Section 13b.3 UStAE (threshold of 10 per cent of worldwide turnover, binding effect of the certificate): reproduced from published excerpts, not checked against the current wording. Property developers (Bauträger) are a disputed special case (case law of the BFH deviating from the administration) and are not covered here.
• Stand: 19.10.2026. For tax purposes, only advice in the individual case is binding.
• Quotations of statutory text are given in translation; the German wording is authoritative.