Munich, 17 Juni 2011
The expensive and complicated qualified digital signature is not required anymore as of 1 July 2011. Save the postage costs!
Until recently, electronic invoices in Germany had to bear a qualified electronic signature. Invoices without the signature were disregarded for tax purposes. This procedure turned out to be an impediment to the proliferation of electronic invoicing.
The German Steuervereinfachungsgesetzes (law on simpler tax procedures) of 2011 has abolished the necessity for said signature as of 1 July 2011. However, the new regulations state that "business owners are now responsible themselves for establishing proof of origin, content integrity and readability of their invoices.“
We recommend using a normal digital signature. Just like the qualified signature, the normal digital signature is linked to its associated data in a manner that makes a subsequent amendment of the data apparent. The normal digital signature is sufficient to establish the authenticity and integrity of invoices. Readability is already established through the use of the data format "PDF".
We have devised a solution fitting seamlessly into Upline's workflow: integrating the signature directly into the pdf document. Of all available options, this solution is by far the most user-friendly.
Save costs for postage, printing, paper, envelopes and protect the environment at the same time!
