Your first invoice to a brand: the mandatory-details checklist
An invoice that the brand's accounting team rejects costs you weeks until you get paid. This checklist gets your first invoice right on the first try.
The mandatory details under §14 UStG
- Your full name and address (the serviceable one from your Impressum (legal notice) works)
- The brand's name and address
- Your tax number or VAT ID — the item most often missing
- Invoice date
- A sequential, unique invoice number (gaps are allowed, duplicates never)
- Type and scope of the service — concretely: "1 Instagram reel + 3 stories, Summer 2026 campaign", not "marketing services"
- Date of service (the month is enough) — even if it matches the invoice date
- The amount, broken down by tax rate — or with the §19 note instead
- Under standard taxation: tax rate and tax amount
As a Kleinunternehmer (small business under §19 UStG), one sentence replaces the VAT lines: "Gemäß § 19 UStG wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet." (no VAT is charged in accordance with §19 UStG). For invoices up to €250 gross, simplified rules apply (Kleinbetragsrechnung, small-amount invoice), but brands usually expect the full form anyway.
This guide explains the legal situation in general terms and to the best of our knowledge. What applies in your specific case is for a tax advisor, a lawyer, or the competent authority to determine — and we tell you in the app when that moment has probably come.
The three mistakes that come back most often
- VAT shown as a Kleinunternehmer. Doubly bad: the brand complains, and you still owe the tax you showed (§14c UStG).
- Service period missing. Mandatory for the brand's input VAT deduction — without it, their accounting is not allowed to accept the invoice.
- Service described too vaguely. "Content creation" tells a tax audit nothing. Channel, format, quantity, campaign.
Afterwards: keep it
You keep invoices for eight years (since 2025; previously ten) — unalterable. StackManagement archives every invoice in a GoBD-compliant (Germany's rules for tamper-proof digital bookkeeping), immutable way; corrections run as cancellation + reissue, never as overwriting.
Invoices that go through.
StackManagement creates §14-compliant invoices with all mandatory details — including the correct §19 note.