Gutschrift (self-billing)

What a Gutschrift is

In German VAT law a Gutschrift is an invoice issued by the customer instead of the supplier — self-billing. § 14 Abs. 2 UStG permits this if the parties agreed to it beforehand. The document has the full legal effect of an invoice: it carries VAT where applicable, it supports the issuer's input-tax deduction, and it must contain all mandatory invoice details of § 14 Abs. 4 UStG — including, verbatim, the word "Gutschrift".

Requirements at a glance

Mind the terminology trap

Colloquially, German businesses call a refund or credit memo a "Gutschrift" too (the kaufmännische Gutschrift). Legally these are different animals: the VAT-law Gutschrift is an invoice issued by the recipient of a supply, while a credit memo correcting an earlier invoice is not — and mixing the two up on documents creates confusion in audits. Documents that reduce an earlier invoice are better labeled "Rechnungskorrektur" or "Storno".

In agency practice

Self-billing is the backbone of creator payouts: once a campaign month closes, the agency knows exactly which deliverables each creator completed at which fee, so it is far more efficient for the agency to issue the settlement than to chase dozens of creator invoices of mixed quality. Self-billing documents belong to the issuer's own numbering, so they need the same gap-free discipline as outgoing invoices under GoBD. TalentM generates creator payout credit notes as § 14 Abs. 2 UStG self-billing documents in a gap-free number range, based on the VAT status stored per creator. For the edge cases — foreign creators, VAT-status changes mid-year — align the setup with your tax advisor.