It has been shown that the germane Ph₃GeH converts aryl and aliphatic acid fluorides directly to their corresponding aldehydes without over-reduction via the conversion of Ph₃GeH to the germylium cation [Ph₃Ge]⁺ by a catalytic amount of the tritylium salt [Ph₃C][B(C₆F₅)₄]. Here, no transition metal catalyst is required and there is no decarbonylation of the acid fluoride, which are advantages over existing methods. The fluorine atoms can also be abstracted from organofluorine compounds using this method.