Vaytax vs Taxually: Which German VAT Filing Service Is Right for You?

Both Vaytax and Taxually can handle German VAT. But they’re built for fundamentally different customers. Taxually is a pan-European VAT platform, Germany is one of dozens of jurisdictions on the same dashboard. Vaytax is a Germany-only specialist, operated by a licensed German Steuerberatungsgesellschaft. If your VAT exposure is mostly or entirely German, the trade-offs lean clearly toward the specialist. If you’re operating across many EU countries, they lean the other way. This guide breaks down where each fits.

Side-by-Side Comparison

What’s included in €79/month

The biggest practical difference between a Germany specialist and a pan-EU platform is what each one bundles into the monthly fee.

Vaytax €79/month covers, end to end:

• Monthly Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung filing, including zero returns when you have no activity
• Annual Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung, the reconciliation return required for every calendar year you’re registered
• Recapitulative statements (Zusammenfassende Meldung / ZM) whenever you sell B2B to other EU VAT IDs
• All standard Finanzamt correspondence, routine letters, queries, clarifications, handled directly on your behalf
• DATEV-based filing, the German tax-professional standard
• A licensed German Steuerberatungsgesellschaft signing your returns
• Direct messaging with your file owner inside the Vaytax dashboard

Multi-country platforms like Taxually typically split these into separate line items. The base monthly fee usually covers the monthly Voranmeldung only. Annual returns, advisor correspondence, and extra-jurisdictional touchpoints (a Finanzamt audit query, for example) are commonly billed as add-ons or hourly advisor time. This isn’t a criticism, it’s a structural difference between a specialist firm and a multi-country platform. It just means you need to compare totals over a full year, not just the headline monthly number, to see what you’ll actually pay.

Service model: specialist firm vs platform

Vaytax is the client portal of a licensed German Steuerberatungsgesellschaft (registered with Steuerberaterkammer Rheinland-Pfalz). Your returns are prepared in DATEV, the software every serious German tax firm uses, and filed with the Finanzamt through authenticated professional channels. Your file has a named owner inside the firm who reviews, signs, and answers Finanzamt queries on your behalf.

Taxually operates as a pan-European VAT compliance platform. It aggregates filing capability across many EU jurisdictions into one interface, which is genuinely valuable if you have multi-country VAT exposure and want one dashboard. For German VAT specifically, your file is one of many in a generic platform support queue rather than sitting with a named German Steuerberater.

Both approaches are legitimate, they’re just optimised for different customers. The platform is optimised for breadth across EU jurisdictions. The specialist is optimised for depth in one.

Contract flexibility: month-to-month vs annual

Vaytax bills month-to-month. You can cancel at the end of any month, with the work for the current period completed cleanly. Practically, the natural cancel window is at year-end after we file the Jahreserklärung, that closes the calendar year and leaves you with no orphaned annual return obligations.

Pan-EU platforms typically require annual contracts to lock in their advertised pricing. That’s reasonable for them, they’re investing in onboarding you across multiple jurisdictions, but it means you commit before you’ve seen how the service handles its first real Finanzamt interaction. Vaytax doesn’t need that commitment, because the firm-to-client relationship is the product.

Filing method: why DATEV matters

In Germany, every VAT return submitted on a client’s behalf must come from a regulated party. Vaytax files exclusively through DATEV, the standard tax software of German Steuerberater, and submits to the Finanzamt through professional ELSTER channels with a complete audit trail.

This matters most when something goes wrong: a Finanzamt query, an audit, a deadline dispute, a Schätzbescheid that needs to be challenged. Filings that come through DATEV from a registered Steuerberatungsgesellschaft carry the same professional weight as filings from any top-tier German tax firm. Web-form pipelines into ELSTER work for routine returns but don’t have the same standing when the Finanzamt has follow-up questions.

Who should choose Vaytax

• You only sell in Germany, or Germany is your only EU country requiring local VAT registration
• You want the annual return included, not as a year-end surprise invoice
• You want a licensed German Steuerberatungsgesellschaft handling your file, not a generic platform support queue
• You want predictable monthly pricing, flat €79/month, no tiers, no per-transaction fees
• You want the option to cancel anytime without an annual lock-in
• You want Finanzamt correspondence handled for you, not pushed back to your inbox

Who should choose Taxually

• You sell across 5+ EU countries and want one dashboard for all of them
• You need centralised reporting across many jurisdictions for accounting consolidation
• You’re running a pan-EU FBA operation where Germany is one piece of a larger compliance surface
• You’re comfortable with annual contracts and managing add-on line items

For sellers in this profile, a pan-European platform’s breadth is real value. Vaytax can’t match it, we deliberately don’t cover other countries. If your VAT exposure is genuinely multi-country, Taxually or another pan-EU platform is the right answer.

Bottom line

If Germany is your only or primary VAT obligation, Vaytax wins on what’s included, depth of advisor relationship, and contract flexibility. If you need many EU countries on the same dashboard, Taxually’s pan-EU footprint is its core strength.