Tax agent Avalara have made errors in submitting tax returns after a change in filing frequency in Germany. As a result, February and March 2024 are missing for DE.
We received warnings about this by letter and email from the German Tax Office and the tax compliance company Singularity.
Having contacted Avalara, they assured me that the missing returns would be filed within 21 days. There was no reason to believe this was not the case. Fast forward to mid-August, we receive a letter from German Tax Office to say as we had still not filed the missing tax returns, they would be deactivating our electronic marketplace in Germany, until the missing returns are submitted.
Sure enough, the account was deactivated and Avalara kept saying they were talking to their 'filing team' who would make it their priority and make sure the missing tax returns were submitted within 10 days. This was in mid-August.
I have spoken to the German tax office today, who inform me that the returns are STILL missing. It seems Avalara has no intention of fulfilling their past duties.
We are now receiving letters and emails saying that if they do not have the tax returns by 25th September, then our DE VAT number is being cancelled.
All our payments to the tax office are up to date and always have been; the only issue is that Avalara will not submit these tax returns. We have no access to the account needed to submit these returns ourselves and when we asked Avalara for these details, they said it is not possible because they control our account. Now they are leaving their partnership with Amazon, they are even less likely to do what they have been paid for.
I have had callbacks with Amazon who keep saying they are 'working' on it but nothing more. Our entire business is a stake and neither Amazon, Avalara, Singularity or the German Tax Office, are now responding in an appropriate manner to help us with our situation.
We paid a tax agent (Avalara) via Amazon to complete the VAT returns for us, a service which we have paid for and they have not done their job and put our business in jeopardy. This is a SCANDAL.
What are we supposed to do from here? Given the timeframe, this issue is becoming extremely urgent.
