The short answer. Your German tax number (Steuernummer) and VAT ID (USt-IdNr) belong to your company, whatever your provider does. When a provider stops a service or changes its name, three things matter: who is still authorised to act for you at the tax office (Finanzamt), which returns are still open, and who files the annual return for the year of the change.
Two providers that many online sellers use for German VAT changed in 2026. Below is what each company says on its own public pages, followed by the checks that apply to any seller, whoever files for you.
What changed at Taxdoo
Taxdoo announced on its blog that it would end its VAT services (Umsatzsteuer-Services) and its DATEV add-on completely on 30 April 2026, and focus on its bookkeeping product, Taxdoo Accounting. Until that date, existing contracts continued unchanged, and customers were told they would receive separate information by email (same announcement). Its pricing page today is headed as pricing for e-commerce bookkeeping, and its bookkeeping packages list the German monthly VAT return (USt-VA).
If you used Taxdoo for German VAT, your registration is untouched. The question to answer is who has filed for your company since May 2026, and under whose power of attorney.
What changed at countX
The pricing page at countx.com/preise now forwards to the VAT software pricing page of JTL. JTL’s own page says that countX is now called Tax, the VAT solution from JTL, and that for existing customers the contract, contacts, login and data stay the same. JTL’s “about us” page says the countX team has been part of the JTL Group since 2026.
A new name changes nothing at the tax office. By the company’s own statement, nothing about an existing contract has to move. The checks below still take ten minutes and are worth doing once.
Five things to check in your own account
- Your tax number and VAT ID. They were issued to your company and stay valid when a provider changes. Keep the tax office’s registration letter with both numbers on file. A new provider does not apply for new ones.
- The power of attorney (Vollmacht). Find out which firm the tax office has on file as acting for your company. As long as an old power of attorney is on file, the office may keep sending your letters there. When you move, the new firm files its own power of attorney; ask the old one in writing to confirm that it has withdrawn its own.
- Open returns. List every monthly or quarterly VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung, UStVA) since the last one you can prove was filed. The proof is the transmission receipt from ELSTER, the tax office’s online portal. Every period after that needs exactly one owner. A return nobody filed is late, and the tax office can charge a late-filing surcharge (Verspätungszuschlag) or estimate your VAT in an estimated assessment (Schätzbescheid).
- The annual return (Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung). When a provider stops in the middle of a year, one annual return covers months filed by two different providers. Agree in writing who files the 2026 return. Check 2025 too: prepared by a tax advisor, it is due on 1 March 2027 (§ 149(3) AO); filed by the company itself, it was due on 31 July 2026.
- ELSTER access. Find out how your returns were sent. If the provider filed with its own ELSTER certificate, the new provider simply uses its own. If there is an ELSTER account in your company’s name, make sure that you, not the old provider, hold the certificate file and its password.
Two more items belong on the list if they apply to you: a One-Stop-Shop (OSS) registration and a filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung). Both were granted to your company, not to the provider, so the next provider needs to know they exist. And while you still have access to an old account, download every filed return, receipt and letter from the tax office.
Moving your German VAT to Vaytax
If you decide to move, it is a change of power of attorney, not a new registration. You sign our engagement letter (Mandatsvereinbarung) and power of attorney online, upload the records you have, and we file from the first open period. You enter your sales figures or upload a report; a licensed German tax advisor files the return.
- Standard, already registered in Germany: €1,099/year or €99/month, with the monthly or quarterly returns, the EC sales list (Zusammenfassende Meldung) and routine letters from the tax office included. The annual return is included on the yearly plan; on the monthly plan, when the plan covers July to December of that year.
- Returns missed since your old provider stopped are added at signup at €99 per past return.
Every plan and add-on is on the pricing page. The full handover, step by step, is in our guide to switching your German VAT provider.
Already registered in Germany?
Your tax number and VAT ID stay the same. How the switch to Vaytax works, or write to us with your situation.
Start the switch
Sources, checked on 9 November 2026: Taxdoo blog “Von VAT zu Accounting” and Taxdoo pricing page; the forward from countx.com/preise to the JTL VAT software pricing page; JTL VAT software page (“Was ist aus countX geworden?”) and about us; § 149 AO (German Fiscal Code).
General information on German VAT law as of November 2026. It is not advice on your case: your own contracts and the deadlines in your own letters are what count. What other companies offer can change; their own pages are the current source.