E-invoicing mandates are usually described in terms of deadlines and formats. What gets less attention is what happens if you miss them — and the answer varies sharply by country. Some of the numbers are large enough to change how urgently you should treat this.
Germany: §26a UStG
Failing to issue a required e-invoice in the compliant format is an administrative offense (Ordnungswidrigkeit) under §26a UStG, carrying a fine of up to €5,000 per offense. Each non-compliant invoice — or each one flagged in a tax audit — can be treated as a separate offense, so this scales with volume, not with a single flat penalty.
There’s a second consequence that matters more in practice than the fine itself: a non-compliant invoice can be rejected by your client’s accounting system, and your client may not be able to claim input VAT deduction until you issue a corrected, compliant version. That’s a slower, more awkward problem than a fine — it delays your payment and makes you the reason your client’s bookkeeping is stuck.
Greece: myDATA
Greece’s e-invoicing and digital reporting system, myDATA, run by the tax authority (AADE), attaches some of the more aggressive penalties in the EU:
| Violation | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Non-transmission of revenue data | 10% of the net value per line item, capped at €250/day and €100,000/year |
| Late transmission | 50% of the non-transmission penalty |
| Non-compliant e-invoice on a VATable transaction | 50% of the VAT amount on that transaction |
| Second offense within 5 years | Penalty doubles |
| Third+ offense within 5 years | Penalty quadruples |
| Deliberate circumvention (first finding) | Flat €5,000–€15,000 |
| Deliberate circumvention (repeat finding) | Flat €15,000–€40,000 |
On top of the direct fines, invoices not properly transmitted through myDATA can cost you the right to deduct input VAT — the same underlying risk as Germany’s, but with a much sharper penalty schedule attached to the reporting failure itself.
The pattern across both
In both countries, the fine is only half the story. The bigger practical cost is a rejected or disputed invoice: a client who can’t process what you sent, a VAT deduction that gets stuck, and a payment that waits behind all of it. Getting the format right the first time avoids both problems at once.
For the full picture on formats, deadlines, and what “compliant” actually means, see our e-invoicing guide.
In Billino
Every invoice Billino generates is already a compliant ZUGFeRD / Factur-X file at the EN 16931 (Comfort) profile — the format that satisfies Germany’s e-invoicing mandate without any extra step on your part. You’re not choosing between “get it right” and “risk the fine” every time you invoice; the compliant format is simply what comes out by default.
