Payment Links for Invoices in Germany: How to Get Paid Online

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. For questions about your specific situation, please consult a tax advisor.

What Is a Payment Link?

A payment link is a web address that opens a checkout page for a fixed amount. Your client clicks, picks a payment method such as credit card, SEPA Direct Debit, or Apple Pay, and pays without typing in an IBAN, an amount, and a payment reference. The money goes to your payment provider, which pays it out to your bank account.

The benefit is simple: paying takes one click. A bank transfer requires your client to open their banking app and copy details across. A link does not. And when your invoicing software creates the link, you no longer have to match incoming payments to invoices by hand.

How Do You Create a Payment Link?

There are two ways. The main difference is how much manual work is left afterwards.

1. Directly with a payment provider. Stripe (with Payment Links), PayPal, and SumUp all let you create payment links for any amount in their dashboard or app. That is quick to set up and fine for one-off cases, such as a deposit. The catch: the link knows nothing about your invoice. You write the invoice separately, paste the link in, and later work out yourself which payment belongs to which invoice.

2. From your invoicing software. Here the link is created automatically with each invoice, for the right amount. When the client pays, the software knows which invoice is settled.

This is how it works in revoBill:

You connect your own Stripe account once. The money goes to your Stripe account, not through revoBill.
In the Stripe dashboard, you choose which payment methods your clients see, for example card, SEPA Direct Debit, or Apple Pay.
Every invoice you send by email includes a pay button. The PDF invoice also carries a clickable payment link.
When your client pays through Stripe, revoBill marks the invoice as paid automatically.

revoBill charges nothing for this. The only cost is Stripe's transaction fees, which Stripe bills to you directly.

Does a Payment Link Replace the Invoice?

No. A checkout page shows an amount and a payee, but usually not the mandatory details under §14(4) UStG, such as the sequential invoice number, your tax number, the date or period of service, and the VAT amount. For services to other businesses, §14(2) UStG requires you to issue an invoice within six months. A paid link does not change that.

The same applies to deposits, which is exactly what dashboard links are most often used for. If you collect money for work you have not yet delivered, §14(5) UStG applies the invoicing rules accordingly. In the final invoice, you then deduct the amounts already paid and the VAT on them.

So the link belongs on the invoice, not in its place. The details every German invoice needs are in our guide to writing invoices. As a Kleinunternehmer, you also need the note on your VAT exemption, covered in the post on the small business regulation.

What Does a Payment Link Cost?

Creating one costs nothing. Costs only arise when someone pays, and they depend heavily on the payment method. Stripe's standard pricing for Germany as of September 2026, using an invoice of 1,190 EUR (1,000 EUR net plus 19 percent VAT) as the example:

Payment method	Fee	On 1,190 EUR
SEPA Direct Debit	0.35 EUR	0.35 EUR
Standard EEA card	1.5% + 0.25 EUR	18.10 EUR
UK card	2.5% + 0.25 EUR	30.00 EUR
Premium EEA card	2.8% + 0.25 EUR	33.57 EUR
International card	3.15% + 0.25 EUR	37.74 EUR

If currency conversion is needed, another 2 percent applies. Stripe states that it charges no setup or monthly fees.

The example shows what matters: on 1,190 EUR, the cheapest card payment costs more than fifty times as much as direct debit, because the card fee grows with the amount while the direct debit fee stays fixed. For small amounts from private clients, card is convenient and the extra cost is modest. For large invoices to business clients, it is worth enabling SEPA Direct Debit in your Stripe dashboard. One limit applies: Stripe caps a single SEPA Direct Debit at 10,000 EUR.

Can You Pass the Fee On to Your Client?

Mostly not. §270a BGB declares void any agreement "durch die der Schuldner verpflichtet wird, ein Entgelt für die Nutzung einer SEPA-Basislastschrift, einer SEPA-Firmenlastschrift, einer SEPA-Überweisung oder einer Zahlungskarte zu entrichten", that is, any agreement obliging the payer to pay a fee for using SEPA direct debit, SEPA credit transfer, or a payment card. For cards, sentence 2 limits the ban to payments by consumers with cards covered by Chapter II of the EU Interchange Fee Regulation, meaning the usual Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards.

In practice:

Private clients paying by card: no surcharge.
Any client paying by SEPA Direct Debit or transfer: no surcharge, B2B included.
Business clients paying by card: §270a BGB does not apply here.

The fact that the payment technically runs through Stripe changes nothing. Your client is still paying by card or direct debit.

But Aren't PayPal Surcharges Allowed?

In 2021, Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled that a fee for paying via PayPal or Sofortüberweisung does not breach §270a BGB, because it is charged for the service of an intermediary rather than for the transfer or card itself (judgment of 25 March 2021, I ZR 203/19). That does not help you with a payment link: if your client pays by card or direct debit on the checkout page, they are using exactly the payment methods §270a BGB names.

The pragmatic approach: treat the fees like bank charges and build them into your prices.

What Should You Know About SEPA Direct Debit?

Direct debit is the cheapest option, but it has two quirks worth knowing before you offer it to new clients.

It is slow. Stripe recommends waiting at least six business days before treating a SEPA Direct Debit as successful. During that window, your client's bank can still reject it, for example for insufficient funds.

It stays reversible for a long time. Under §675x(2) and (4) BGB, your client can request a refund of a SEPA Direct Debit within eight weeks of the debit, without giving a reason. According to Stripe's documentation, such disputes are accepted automatically, cannot be contested, and carry a dispute fee. If the debit was never authorized, the client has up to 13 months.

That does not mean the money is lost. The claim still stands, and you can pursue it like any unpaid invoice, with a payment reminder and default interest if needed. But with direct debit, "paid" is only final after eight weeks. If you want certainty on a large invoice to a new client, ask for a bank transfer. Your client cannot pull that back on their own.

How Do You Book Payments Made via a Payment Link?

Stripe deducts its fee up front and pays out the rest, often bundling several payments into one transfer. Your bank statement therefore shows neither the invoice amount nor an individual invoice. For your bookkeeping, that means:

Record revenue gross. You owe VAT on the full invoice amount. Under §10(1) UStG, the taxable amount is everything you receive from your client for the service, minus VAT. Your client pays the full amount. The fee is a price you pay to Stripe.
Fees are a business expense. Book Stripe's fees as an expense, not as a reduction of revenue.
Break down payouts. In the Stripe dashboard, you can split each payout into the payments and fees it contains. That is the record that bridges the gap between invoice and bank statement.
Keep the records. Fee statements and payout reports are accounting records and fall under the same eight-year retention period as your invoices. More in the post on invoice retention requirements.

When revoBill marks the invoice as paid after payment, you already know which invoices are settled. You then only match the payout on your bank account to Stripe's bundled transfer, not to each individual invoice.

How Do You Keep Your Payment Link From Looking Like Phishing?

Emails with links asking for payment are a classic scam pattern, so careful clients do not click. A few things lower the barrier:

Announce it. Mention in your quote that invoices can be paid online. Then the pay button in the invoice email is no surprise.
Name the invoice number and amount in the email. That lets your client check that link and invoice belong together.
Pick a recognizable statement descriptor. In Stripe, you set the name that appears on your client's statement. Stripe itself recommends keeping it recognizable to avoid disputes.
Keep your bank details on the invoice. The IBAN is not a mandatory detail, but some accounts departments only ever pay by transfer. Clients who do not trust the link then have an alternative.

What Does E-Invoicing Change About Payment Links?

Very little. From 2027, the first businesses must issue e-invoices in B2B, and from 2028 all of them except Kleinunternehmer. Legally, the structured data file is then the invoice, not the email it is sent with. The payment link is not part of the invoice but an offer of how your client can pay. It can stay in that email.

The order stays the same as today: first a correct invoice, then the link. When the obligation applies to you is covered in the post on e-invoicing in Germany.

Common Mistakes

Sending the link instead of an invoice. A checkout page replaces no mandatory detail, not even for a deposit.
Adding card fees for private clients. Void under §270a BGB.
Booking only the payout. VAT follows the invoice amount, not what Stripe transfers.
Treating a direct debit as final. For eight weeks, your client can pull it back without a reason.
Offering only card on large invoices. On 1,190 EUR, that costs around 18 EUR instead of 0.35 EUR.
Removing your bank details from the invoice. Clients who only pay by transfer then face an unnecessary hurdle.