Registering for VAT in Germany
HI
Any advice on tax companies for selling in DE as a UK seller?
spoke with the company Avalara but they are very expensive as new seller?
any recommendations would be appreciated
thank you in advance
148 replies
Seller_0hKEf0aua9eBB
EFN - you can sell in Germany up to 100 000 euro a year without registering VAT there
Seller_X88bwNGqC7ZXP
Registering in Germany is pretty straightforward, as are the VAT returns, monthly and yearly. After the U.K., it is probably the easiest to do yourself without having to pay anybody any fees. If you want to be serious and grow your business I personally think UK and DE VAT registrations are a must.
If anybody needs any help then let me know.
Gurpreet
Seller_4dEgAAO60KCjX
If I hold all my inventory in the USA and only list on UK and DE Amazon. Do I need to register for a Tax Certificate. I don’t sell very much.
Seller_BgKbtb0cerTCs
Has anyone submitted a for form Amazon posted to request the certificate yet?
It would be nice to hear from someone who has completed the process what it entails?
Seller_sFEUMUfeW5484
So to confirm. If all your orders are shipped from the UK into Germany, and you are under the VAT threshold, you do not need to do anything regarding the Amazon announcement about being able to sell after MArch? Is that right?
I spoke to our accountants and they said so far as the law is concerned, if you;re under the DE threshold, you don’t need to register. However, I was wondering if Amazon are enforcing registration regardless.
Seller_BgKbtb0cerTCs
In this thread someone called the German UK Tax office and got answers:
Seller_RptBlOUvimKtb
Don’t make an mistake- AVALARA it’s nightmare 
please read reviews about them. We currently using them and changing to other company!!!
Seller_iYCrwoyqEYtxD
We are already VAT reg in Germany (several years due to Threshold) - We use Simply VAT for our German VAT filings- they have sent us the form to file / get this new tax registration, they say it could take 8 weeks to get - we are only being charged small admin fee for them to get it.
I have filled the form in today - and returned to Simply vat (it was just confirming sales channels, and user id / trading names for each channel ie amazon and ebay/ website etc.
It seems to me this was a change in law needed so they could hold e-commerce platforms liable for those not registered - if you are registered for vat / not required to, then it should be fine 
They have put the below on the email the reason for the form / tax registry that is required:
Disclaimer: Please note, this amendment to the German tax law gives the German tax authorities the right to total visibility of all accounts held on any online marketplace. They will investigate all activities for each account held with an online marketplace, examining the date these accounts were opened, turnover via the online platform and potential VAT liability from this date onwards. Please be aware, if your VAT liability started before your requested VAT registration start date, you may be investigated in detail and be asked to declare any turnover from this date onwards and settle your outstanding VAT liability with the German tax authorities. Furthermore, we would like to make you aware that in addition to that there may be serious consequences as not notifying the German tax authorities of any VAT liability before your VAT registration start date may be viewed as tax fraud.
Therefore it seems that this is now required and Amazon are getting their house in order to stop themselves being liable.
On another note - anyone else who is PAn Eu had Czech Gvt suddenly asking for an EORI number? (we have been VAT reg with them since Sept and they are now asking for it)
Seller_7yWTQpt8GaVWJ
Ok. I think that it is obvious that you have to register in Germany, in my opinion. Now, how is that done? Anyone have a link they can share or a company that they would recommend working with?
Seller_Zl4t3wrkSGi8T
We’re using a freelancer from Upwork called Stephan (I forget his surname as it’s not me dealing with it)
He’s basically asking us for any info on the form (as we don’t sprechen Deutsch) and I think he’s walking us through each step and sending it off for us. Made the entire process a lot more cost & time efficient than using Avalara or doing it ourselves, thats for sure.
