Monthly returns are due by the 7th of the following month (for example, March data by April 7th). Quarterly returns are due by the 7th of the month after the quarter ends (for example, Q3, covering July to September, by October 7th). If you have a filing extension, each deadline shifts one month later.

Without filing extension: Due by the 7th of the following month (e.g. January → February 7th).

With filing extension (recommended): Due by the 7th of the second month after the period:
Jan → Mar 7 • Feb → Apr 7 • Mar → May 7 • Apr → Jun 7 • May → Jul 7 • Jun → Aug 7 • Jul → Sep 7 • Aug → Oct 7 • Sep → Nov 7 • Oct → Dec 7 • Nov → Jan 7 • Dec → Feb 7

Quarterly (with filing extension):
Q1 (Jan–Mar) → May 7 • Q2 (Apr–Jun) → Aug 7 • Q3 (Jul–Sep) → Nov 7 • Q4 (Oct–Dec) → Feb 7

Late submissions may incur penalties.

Yes! You must file a “zero report” every month, even if you had no sales or purchases. Simply submit the filing with all values at zero. Failure to file can result in estimated assessments and penalties from the Finanzamt.

If you file monthly and use a filing extension, you must pay an advance VAT payment (SVA) equal to 1/11 of your prior year’s total VAT. The official Finanzamt deadline is February 10th, submit your SVA figure in Vaytax by February 7th so we can file in time.

The SVA is automatically deducted in your December filing (Kz 39). If you file quarterly, no SVA is required.

New businesses with no prior-year data can set the SVA to €0.

A filing extension extends your monthly VAT filing deadline by one month. In return, you must pay an advance VAT payment (SVA) of 1/11 of your previous year’s total VAT. This SVA is deducted in your December filing. You can set this up in the Settings tab.

Tax ID: A German tax number assigned by your local Finanzamt (e.g. 123/456/78901). Used for domestic tax filings.

VAT ID: An EU-wide VAT identification number starting with “DE” (e.g. DE123456789). Used for cross-border EU transactions and must appear on invoices to EU businesses.

Filing frequency depends on your prior-year VAT (as of 01.01.2025):

Monthly: If your VAT exceeded €9,000 in the previous year
Quarterly: If your VAT was between €2,000 and €9,000
Annual only: If your VAT was under €2,000

New businesses (2021–2026 special rule): Filing frequency is based on your projected VAT for the year, not automatically monthly. If the projected annual VAT is under €9,000, quarterly filing is sufficient.

Regardless of filing frequency, an annual VAT return (Umsatzsteuererklärung) is always required.

SEPA direct debit allows the Finanzamt to automatically collect VAT payments from your bank account on the due date. We strongly recommend it because:
- No risk of missed payments or late fees
- Payments are collected automatically
- You can suspend it for specific months in Settings if needed

Without SEPA, you must manually transfer the correct amount with the right reference number before the deadline.

It depends on your declared activity start date, not on your Steuernummer date. Filing obligation begins with the start of your business activity in Germany, and that’s a date you declared yourself in the tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung).

If your activity start date has already passed, then yes: you owe a monthly UStVA for every month since that date, including months with no sales (a “zero return”). Skipping them triggers automatic estimates (Schätzbescheid) and late-filing penalties (Verspätungszuschlag), even when your actual liability is zero. Vaytax handles zero returns inside the same monthly plan and the wizard fills in automatically when there’s nothing to report.

If your activity start date is still in the future (your stock isn’t in Germany yet, your operation isn’t live), you don’t owe filings until that date arrives. You also can’t legally generate German sales before your Steuernummer is issued, so the practical flow is: declare your real activity start in the Fragebogen, get the Steuernummer in time, then go live on the declared date with filings starting from there.

Got the activity start wrong and want to push it back? Send us a message via your inbox, we can submit a correction to the Finanzamt if the business reality changed.

The annual return (Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung) works the same way: required for every calendar year you were active, included in your monthly fee. See When can I safely cancel? for the year-end logic.

Short answer: the natural cancel point is at year’s end, after your December filing, not mid‑year.

Why year‑end works: Germany requires two things for every calendar year you’re VAT‑registered, (1) the monthly or quarterly returns (Umsatzsteuer‑Voranmeldungen) and (2) one annual return (Umsatzsteuer‑Jahreserklärung) that reconciles the full year. Your subscription covers both. If you cancel after December’s filing, the full year of monthlies is in, and we file the corresponding Jahreserklärung in the spring as the natural close‑out.

Why mid‑year is risky: if you cancel in, say, July, you still legally owe the Jahreserklärung for that year. Without us, you’ll need another advisor lined up to file it, otherwise the Finanzamt will eventually estimate it for you (Schätzbescheid) with penalties. Cancelling mid‑year is fine if you’ve already arranged that coverage; it’s a problem if you haven’t.

Switching providers? Same logic. The cleanest hand‑off is at year’s end, we close the year, the new advisor starts fresh in January. Switching mid‑year forces you (or them) to pick up our partial year, which adds friction and risk.

Stopping German activity entirely? Notify the Finanzamt of the deregistration; we’ll file the final Jahreserklärung covering the months you were active. After that, cancellation is clean.

Cancel anytime via the Stripe portal in Settings → Billing. We don’t lock you in, we just want you to make the call with the annual return in mind.

Account deletion is permanent, profile, filings, ZM entries, uploaded documents, and Nachweise are all removed and can’t be recovered. Before you delete, please walk through these three steps in order:

1. Cancel your subscription. Settings → Billing → Manage billing, then cancel inside the Stripe portal. Don’t skip this, deleting the account does not automatically cancel an active Stripe subscription, and you can be charged again the next billing cycle.

2. Make sure you’re covered tax-wise. Germany still requires the annual VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung) for every calendar year you were registered. If we won’t be filing it, line up another advisor first, otherwise the Finanzamt will eventually estimate it for you (Schätzbescheid) with penalties. See the When can I safely cancel? FAQ for the full picture.

3. Download everything you might need later. Documents tab → download each of these:
• VAT return Nachweise, the Finanzamt’s confirmation of every filing you submitted
• Engagement Letter (Mandatsvereinbarung), Tax Power of Attorney (Vollmacht), and the SEPA mandate (if applicable)
• Any Steuerbescheid or Finanzamt letters we’ve uploaded for you
If you also want a copy of the registration form (Fragebogen) we filed for you, ask us before deletion, it’s in our records but not exposed in the dashboard.

Then send us a message via your inbox with the “Account deletion request” template. We’ll confirm the three steps above are done and complete the deletion. You’ll get a confirmation when it’s gone.

Payment (you owe): Your output VAT (tax on your sales) exceeds your input VAT (tax on your purchases). You need to pay the difference to the Finanzamt.

Refund (you receive): Your input VAT exceeds your output VAT. This is common for Amazon FBA sellers or businesses with high purchase costs. The Finanzamt will transfer the refund to your bank account.

The ZM (Recapitulative Statement) is a mandatory EU report for cross-border transactions. You must file it if you:
- Delivered goods to businesses in other EU countries (Kz 41)
- Provided services to EU businesses under reverse charge (Kz 21)

The ZM lists each EU business partner with their VAT ID and the transaction amount. It’s filed together with your monthly VAT return.

How it works in Vaytax: we build your EU sales list from your uploaded report or your typed entries, check every VAT ID live against the EU VIES register, and you confirm or fix any flagged line before submitting. A line you genuinely can’t complete never delays your VAT return; we resolve it with you afterwards.

A German-compliant invoice must contain:
• Full name and address of the supplier and recipient
• Tax ID or VAT ID of the supplier
• Invoice date and a sequential invoice number
• Description of the goods or services (quantity and type)
• Date of delivery or service
• Net amount broken down by tax rate
• Applicable tax rate and tax amount
• For credit notes: the label “Gutschrift”

Important: Missing or incorrect details can cause the Finanzamt to deny your input VAT deduction. Corrections are possible but do not apply retroactively, the deduction only counts from when a correct invoice exists.

Yes. You can submit a correction filing for any previous period. Go to your Filings tab, click on the period you want to correct, and submit updated numbers. The correction replaces the original filing at the Finanzamt.

Yes. A previously submitted VAT return can be corrected by filing an amended return (berichtigte Anmeldung) for the same period. The new filing replaces the original one at the Finanzamt.

Refund amounts can also be offset against other outstanding tax liabilities, or assigned to third parties upon request. Contact us if you need to arrange this.

If you receive any letter or communication from the Finanzamt, please forward it to us immediately by opening a message in your inbox and attaching a scan or photo of the letter. As your tax representative, we handle all communication with the tax office on your behalf. Do not respond directly without consulting us first.

Your monthly plan covers a lot more than just the UStVA. Included automatically:
• UStVA filing via ELSTER
• Annual return (Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung)
• ZM (Zusammenfassende Meldung) whenever cross-border supplies trigger one
• Import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) reclaim through your monthly return, upload the customs invoice in Documents and we book the input VAT
• Routine Finanzamt correspondence: address changes, deadline confirmations, payment queries, standard audit document requests
• Two correction filings per calendar year
• A named tax advisor reviewing every filing before it goes to ELSTER

Billed separately at €200/hr, only on request and only after a written quote: complex audit defence, structuring or cross-border tax advisory, incoming-invoice review, and one-off legal questions outside routine compliance. We always quote first, no surprise charges.

From the Vaytax side, not really. B2B sales to dealers in other EU countries are reverse-charge supplies, reported on your monthly UStVA and on the ZM, both filed for you as part of the subscription.

You don’t need OSS at all (OSS is B2C-only). If your model is “stock in a German 3PL, ship to dealers across the EU,” the German VAT registration plus monthly compliance covers everything.

What you need to keep clean on your end:
• Collect a valid EU VAT ID from every dealer customer and verify it (we check every ID against VIES automatically, whether it comes from your uploaded report or your typed entries).
• Keep proof of intra-community supply (CMR, arrival confirmation, or other transport document) so the zero-rated reverse-charge treatment is defensible if the Finanzamt asks.
• Apply the reverse-charge mention on your invoices to EU B2B customers (e.g. “VAT reverse charge, §13b UStG”).

If you also sell some B2C alongside B2B, see What is a recapitulative statement (ZM)? for how the two streams get separated in the filing.

If your company is established outside the EU, from your first sale to a consumer in another EU country: the €10,000 EU-wide threshold is only available to EU-established sellers. If your company is established in an EU country, once your EU-wide B2C passes €10,000 a year. If your stock ships from Germany, your Union OSS is filed through Germany (Germany is your member state of identification) and we can file it for you, €300 to set up, then €200 per quarter. It sits on top of your German VAT plan and covers your sales to consumers in every other EU country on one quarterly return. We’ll flag it when you need it.

Two answers, depending on where you paid the VAT.

German VAT (in scope, no extra cost): hotel in Berlin, taxi in Munich, stand and exhibitor fees at a Düsseldorf or Frankfurt Messe, train tickets within Germany. All reclaimed automatically through your monthly UStVA as Vorsteuer (input VAT). Upload the invoices in your Documents tab and we book them.

Other-EU VAT (separate procedure, not included): Italian hotel, French trade fair, Polish exhibition fees, Spanish car rental. These can’t be reclaimed through your German UStVA, they require a 13th Directive refund application filed in each country where you paid the VAT, with its own deadlines (usually June 30 of the following year) and rules. We don’t file 13th Directive refunds as standard compliance work. If you have a meaningful amount to recover, message us via your inbox and we’ll quote.

What you need: proper invoices (not receipts) showing the supplier’s VAT details, your company name and address, and a clear business purpose. Hotel folios and Messe invoices almost always qualify; restaurant receipts often don’t.