Selling on Amazon.de or storing inventory in a German FBA warehouse? You need a valid German VAT number. Amazon enforces it under §25e UStG marketplace liability. We handle registration and the monthly filings that follow, no fiscal rep required, in English.
中文说明：德国增值税注册、亚马逊 FBA 义务与进口增值税 →
The short version
Chinese Amazon sellers are the single most policed non-EU seller group in Germany. Amazon's §25e UStG liability exposure means it actively verifies VAT compliance and will suspend Chinese seller listings without a valid DE USt-IdNr.
Germany does not require a fiscal representative for standard VAT registration and filing; a licensed German tax advisor acting for you is enough. This applies to Chinese companies too.
Chinese companies are handled by Finanzamt Berlin International. Timeline: 8–16 weeks (longer than EU due to document translation and Apostille). Year-one cost via Vaytax: €1,299/year all-in, German VAT registration included, plus sworn translation costs billed at cost.
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The three most common profiles. If one of these sounds like you, registration is almost certainly mandatory.
Chinese companies whose inventory lands in German Amazon warehouses (DE1 Werne, DE2 Rheinberg, DE3 Graben, DE4 Bad Hersfeld). The moment your stock arrives, you have a German taxable presence and registration is mandatory.
Amazon Seller Central demands a German USt-IdNr. from Chinese sellers and suspends listings if it is not provided. Under German marketplace liability rules, Amazon can be held jointly liable for your unpaid VAT, so it polices compliance hard.
Chinese e-commerce brands using a German third-party logistics provider, consignment stock, or direct fulfilment into Germany from a local warehouse. Inventory location triggers registration, regardless of where the company is based.
Chinese companies selling on Amazon.de are the largest single group targeted by German marketplace VAT enforcement. The chain of obligations is straightforward and strict:
Amazon's timeline: Amazon typically gives Chinese sellers 2–4 weeks to provide a valid German USt-IdNr. once it requests one. German registration takes 8–16 weeks. The math does not work unless you register before Amazon asks. Sellers who wait often lose listings for 1–3 months.
Germany does not require a fiscal representative for standard VAT registration and filing; a licensed German tax advisor acting for you is enough. This applies to Chinese companies as to any other non-EU company.
A licensed tax advisor acting as your tax agent under §3 StBerG is sufficient. The distinction:
| Fiscal Representative | Tax advisor (Vaytax) | |
|---|---|---|
| Required for Chinese companies? | No. Under § 22a UStG it is an option, not a duty, open only to businesses making exclusively tax-free supplies in Germany with no input-tax deduction (Vorsteuerabzug) | Yes, this is the standard path |
| Takes on your VAT duties? | Yes, it takes on the foreign company's VAT duties as its own (§ 22b UStG) | No, you remain the taxpayer |
A separate fiscal-representation fee is not needed for standard German VAT compliance. For a full breakdown, see our fiscal representation guide.
All Chinese companies registering for German VAT are routed to Finanzamt Berlin International (Thiemannstraße 1, 12059 Berlin), regardless of which Chinese province your company is based in. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing all route to Berlin International. The office took over this jurisdiction from Finanzamt Neukölln in 2023 under the UStZustV (same office and bank details, new name), and it has handled China-Germany VAT matters at scale for over a decade, with established workflows for Chinese document review.
Documents required (all translated by a sworn translator if not already in German):
For Chinese sellers, the timeline bottleneck is rarely the tax office. It is obtaining sworn German translations of Chinese corporate documents, and in some cases, Apostille or consular legalization. Typical timeline breakdown:
Total: 8–16 weeks. Well-prepared applications (all translations and Apostilles done before submission) land at the 8–10 week end.
Germany's preferred VAT payment method is SEPA Direct Debit from a EUR-denominated bank account with a SEPA-compatible IBAN. Chinese mainland banks typically cannot issue SEPA IBANs. Standard workarounds:
Vaytax sets up the SEPA mandate as part of onboarding. You provide the EUR IBAN from whichever provider you use, and we configure the tax office authorization.
Once you have your Tax ID, the monthly rhythm is simple:
Filing frequency follows your VAT figures, not how new the registration is. For businesses starting activity between 2021 and 2026, a temporary rule (§ 18 Abs. 2 Satz 6 UStG) sets the first year from the VAT you expect to owe that year: over €9,000 files monthly, otherwise quarterly, and at €2,000 or less the Finanzamt can waive preliminary returns entirely. Later years use the same thresholds on the prior year's actual VAT. That temporary rule is scheduled to lapse after 2026, so unless it is extended, businesses starting from 2027 go back to mandatory monthly filing for their first two calendar years. Most foreign sellers holding German stock clear €9,000 and file monthly either way.
If you crossed the German storage or sales threshold months ago and only just realised the obligation: we file the missing UStVAs retroactively at the same €99 per filing, charged once at signup. Pick the first period you need us to file when you register; we catch you up and continue going forward in one onboarding. The Finanzamt may still issue Verspätungszuschlag (late-filing surcharges) directly to your company for retroactive periods; those are independent of our fees, and we file as quickly as possible to keep them small.
Already selling on amazon.de? See your German VAT from your own report: drop your Amazon VAT Transactions Report (or easybill export) and we read it on your device, nothing uploaded, to show the figure reconciled to your file. It is a draft, subject to our review.
For a mainland Chinese company, the core registration set is:
Hong Kong has no German-style commercial register extract. Your Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration Certificate together serve that purpose, alongside your Articles of Association (apostilled), a passport copy of the legal representative, and a signed power of attorney. We confirm the exact set with you during onboarding.
For the full document checklist by country (and what an apostille is and when you need one), see our documents for German VAT registration, by country guide.
No per-sale surcharge. No fiscal-rep fee. No non-EU premium. The price you see covers your routine recurring filings; translation costs and one-off work like backfiling or disputes are always quoted up front.
New to German VAT · Path A
German VAT registration included. Charged in full at signup. Renews yearly.
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Already registered · Path B
Already hold a German VAT number? Skip the registration fee and move straight into monthly filing. €1,099/year if you pay annually.
Or €1,099 billed yearly. No registration fee.
Free instant English read, no signup. Then a fixed price from €200 net, nothing to pay until you accept. Estimated assessment (Schätzbescheid), payment reminder (Mahnung), formal hearing notice (Anhörung).
Yes, once your stock sits in Germany. The moment your goods arrive in a German Amazon FBA warehouse or a German 3PL, you have a German VAT obligation, with no sales threshold. Amazon then asks for a German VAT ID (USt-IdNr.) and can suspend your listings if you cannot provide one. Amazon typically gives 2 to 4 weeks once it asks, while registration for a Chinese company takes 8 to 16 weeks, so register before Amazon asks.
Finanzamt Berlin International (Thiemannstraße 1, 12059 Berlin) handles every company established in mainland China or Hong Kong, whatever the province (UStZustV, § 1). Your registration, your tax number (Steuernummer) and all your filings run through that office.
No. Germany does not require a fiscal representative for standard VAT registration and filing, also for companies from outside the EU. A licensed German tax advisor acting for you is enough, and you remain the taxpayer. Under § 22a UStG fiscal representation is only an option, for businesses with exclusively tax-free supplies in Germany.
Usually 8 to 16 weeks in total. The bottleneck is rarely the tax office: it is the sworn German translation and the apostille of your Chinese company documents. Since China joined the Apostille Convention on 7 November 2023, an apostille replaces the old consular legalisation. Once the file is complete, the tax office takes 4 to 8 weeks for the tax number (Steuernummer), and the EU VAT ID (USt-IdNr.) follows 1 to 2 weeks later.
Not easily without a euro account. The tax office prefers SEPA direct debit from a euro account with a SEPA IBAN, and mainland Chinese banks typically cannot issue one. Most sellers open a euro business account with Wise or Payoneer, or use a Hong Kong subsidiary's euro account. A SWIFT wire is accepted as a fallback, but it is slower and costs more.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026
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German VAT registration, monthly filing, and the annual return, handled end to end by a licensed German tax advisor. Built for Chinese Amazon sellers. Reviewed June 2026 by a licensed German tax advisor.
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