Kleinunternehmer: the exemption note on your invoice
Under Germany's small business rule your Shopify invoices show no VAT. Which note goes on them instead, and what happens at 100,000 € turnover.
Your invoice shows no VAT. It says instead that the small business exemption applies, the Steuerbefreiung für Kleinunternehmer.
In the app you turn on the small business rule in the settings. The app then prints that note in place of the tax lines, on the Free plan too.
In the app
Set it once and it holds for every new invoice:
Open the app's settings.
Under Tax, turn on "Small-business rule (§ 19 UStG): show no VAT".
Enter your tax number or VAT id. The app needs one of the two for a small business too, and creates no document without it.
Save. The next invoice carries the note, with no VAT column and no net amount.
What the law says
You are a Kleinunternehmer if your turnover was 25,000 € or less the year before and does not pass 100,000 € in the current year (§ 19 Abs. 1 UStG). These limits apply since 1 January 2025. Before that they were 22,000 € and 50,000 €.
The invoice has to say that the small business exemption applies (§ 34a UStDV). The rule sets no fixed wording. On German documents the app prints "Steuerbefreiung für Kleinunternehmer gemäß § 19 UStG", on English documents "VAT exemption for small businesses (§ 19 UStG)".
Sources: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ustg_1980/__19.html and https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ustdv_1980/__34a.html; on the old limits and on passing the limit, the IHK Berlin chamber of commerce: https://www.ihk.de/berlin/service-und-beratung/recht-und-steuern/steuern-und-finanzen/kleinunternehmerregelung-4408200, all in German.
When you pass the limit
According to the IHK Berlin, the very sale that takes you over 100,000 € in the current year is no longer exempt. From then on, VAT goes on the invoice.
Change the tax settings in your store and turn the small business rule off in the app. While the app still says small business and Shopify already charges tax, it creates no invoice. It tells you the two settings do not match.
What that means for your invoices in detail is a question for your tax adviser.
What the app does not do
The app prints the note you set. The rest is not its job:
It does not count your turnover or warn you before the limit.
It does not switch the rule off by itself.
You cannot change the wording of the note.
It changes no tax setting in Shopify.
It is not tax advice.
Next
The other notes the app prints, like the one under § 6a UStG for business buyers in the EU, are on the support page. The home page shows the three documents of one order.