Glossary
Accounting glossary
Accounting terms from Austria, Germany and across the EU, explained plainly.
Accounting glossary
UVA (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung)
The UVA is the Austrian advance VAT return: you report the VAT and input VAT of a month or quarter to the tax office and pay the balance by the 15th of the second following month.
Read moreUStVA (German advance VAT return)
The UStVA is the German advance VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung): by the 10th day after the end of the month or quarter you send the tax office the VAT prepayment you calculated yourself, electronically, and pay it on the same day (§ 18(1) UStG).
Read moreKleinunternehmerregelung (small business exemption)
The Kleinunternehmerregelung exempts businesses with annual turnover of up to EUR 55,000 from VAT (§ 6 Abs. 1 Z 27 UStG). You charge no VAT, and you cannot deduct input VAT either.
Read moreSmall business exemption in Germany (§ 19 UStG)
In Germany you are a small business (Kleinunternehmer) if your total turnover was no more than EUR 25,000 in the previous year and does not exceed EUR 100,000 in the current year (§ 19(1) UStG). In the year you start, only the EUR 25,000 limit applies. Your sales are then VAT-exempt, and you cannot deduct input VAT.
Read moreSmall business invoice: required details and the exemption note
A small business (Kleinunternehmer) invoice shows no VAT and carries a note on the exemption. In Germany § 34a UStDV lists the required details, for example with the sentence "Steuerfreie Kleinunternehmerleistung gemäß § 19 Abs. 1 UStG"; in Austria a note such as "Umsatzsteuerfrei aufgrund der Kleinunternehmerregelung" is enough.
Read moreInput VAT deduction and invoice requirements
Input VAT deduction lets you subtract the VAT other businesses charge you from your own VAT (§ 12 UStG). You need an invoice that contains the details required by § 11 UStG.
Read moreReverse charge (Übergang der Steuerschuld)
Under reverse charge, the business customer rather than the supplier owes the VAT. In Austria this is governed by § 19 of the VAT Act 1994 (UStG). Under § 11(1a) UStG the invoice then shows no VAT but a note that the tax liability passes to the recipient.
Read moreEinnahmen-Ausgaben-Rechnung (cash-basis accounting)
Under the Einnahmen-Ausgaben-Rechnung your profit is the excess of business receipts over business expenses (§ 4 Abs. 3 EStG). What counts is when the money moves.
Read moreAfA (depreciation)
AfA spreads the cost of an asset you use in your business for more than a year over its useful life (§ 7 EStG). Each year you deduct only that year's share as a business expense.
Read moreBooking entry (Buchungssatz)
A booking entry states which accounts a business transaction affects: first the account on the debit side, then, after the word “to” (“an”), the account on the credit side, each with its amount. Total debits always equal total credits.
Read moreAustrian standard chart of accounts (EKR)
The Einheitskontenrahmen (EKR) is Austria's standard chart of accounts for financial bookkeeping: ten account classes from 0 to 9 that follow the structure of the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. The Chamber of Tax Advisors and Auditors (KSW) publishes it as KFS/BW 6.
Read moreBelegaufbewahrung (record retention)
In Austria you keep books, records and the related receipts and invoices for seven years (§ 132 BAO). The period starts at the end of the calendar year the documents relate to.
Read moreGoBD (German rules for electronic bookkeeping)
The GoBD are the German Federal Ministry of Finance's rules on how businesses keep and store books, records and receipts electronically. In short: record transactions completely, correctly, promptly, in order and unalterably (§ 146 AO), keep records for up to ten years in an evaluable form (§ 147 AO) and document the process.
Read moreebInterface
The Austrian XML standard for structured electronic invoices.
Read moreE-invoice formats: ebInterface, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD and Peppol
A structured e-invoice is a machine-readable data set that software can process without retyping. ebInterface is the Austrian XML standard, XRechnung the German standard for invoices to public bodies, ZUGFeRD a PDF with embedded XML data — and Peppol a network with its own format rules for delivery.
Read moreE-invoicing mandate in Germany
In Germany, businesses must gradually use structured e-invoices for supplies to other domestic businesses: they have had to be able to receive them since 1 January 2025 and must issue them from 2027 if prior-year turnover exceeded EUR 800,000, and from 2028 as a rule for everyone. The legal basis is § 14 and § 27(38) of the German VAT Act (UStG).
Read moreDATEV and BMD export
A DATEV or BMD export is a file of finished bookings — account, contra account, amount, tax code, document date and document number — that a tax adviser imports into their accounting software instead of re-entering documents. DATEV uses the DATEV format (booking batch as an EXTF file), BMD NTCS its own booking import.
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