Etsy is a marketplace under §22f and §25e UStG. For some transactions Etsy collects and remits the German VAT itself (deemed supplier under §3 Abs. 3a UStG); for others, you are the taxable supplier and must file your own returns. Vaytax handles the German VAT registration and monthly filings, separating what Etsy already settled from what you owe directly. Reviewed and signed by a licensed German Steuerberater before every filing.
The short version
Etsy is a marketplace under §22f and §25e UStG. For specific transactions, Etsy itself is the deemed supplier and collects/remits the VAT directly to the Finanzamt: non-EU sellers shipping to EU consumers below the €150 IOSS threshold, and non-EU sellers selling out of EU-stored inventory. For everything else, you are the taxable supplier.
When your own German VAT registration is required: if you store goods in Germany (any third-party fulfilment, your own German warehouse, dropshipping from a German supplier), if your EU-wide cross-border B2C sales exceed €10,000 per year, or if you sell digital downloads to German consumers without OSS.
What it costs: €1,199/year all-in, German VAT registration included. Already have a German VAT number? €79/month. One registration covers Etsy plus Shopify plus your own website plus any other channel.
Not sure if this applies to your shop? Take the 60-second VAT check →
The three most common profiles. If one of these sounds like your shop, registration is almost certainly mandatory.
You use a German 3PL, a print-on-demand provider, or your own warehousing in Germany. The moment inventory lands in Germany, registration is mandatory, with no threshold, whether you are a US vintage seller or an EU craft maker.
You are established in an EU country and ship handmade or vintage goods directly to German consumers. Once your EU-wide cross-border B2C sales pass €10,000 per year, you must register in Germany or use OSS.
You sell on Etsy and on your own website or another marketplace. The Etsy deemed-supplier rules cover only Etsy-platform transactions in narrow scenarios; your own-website sales are always on you.
Four common Etsy scenarios and what each one requires.
You use a German fulfilment provider, dropship from a German wholesaler, or have your own warehousing in Germany. Local German VAT registration is mandatory from the first unit stored, no threshold. This applies whether you're a US-based vintage seller using a German 3PL or an EU craft maker using a German fulfilment partner.
You're established in an EU country (NL, PT, IT, etc.) and ship handmade or vintage goods directly to German consumers. Your total EU-wide cross-border B2C sales (all destinations combined, not just Germany) exceed €10,000 per year. You must either register in Germany or use OSS through your home country. OSS is usually simpler if you have no German inventory.
Non-EU seller (US, UK, AU, CN) shipping goods of intrinsic value at or below €150 to EU consumers via Etsy. Under EU IOSS rules and §3 Abs. 3a UStG, Etsy is the deemed supplier and collects/remits VAT itself. You do not need your own German VAT registration for these specific sales (you may still need other registrations elsewhere).
You're established in an EU country, your EU-wide cross-border B2C sales (across all EU countries) are below €10,000 per year, and you have no German inventory. You can charge your home-country VAT. No German registration, no OSS needed yet. Monitor the threshold every month and switch to OSS or local registration before crossing it.
Etsy operates under the same German marketplace-liability regime as Amazon, eBay and the others (see our §25e explainer). The mechanics are identical: §22f obliges Etsy to collect and verify seller VAT data and report seller transactions to the Finanzamt; §25e makes Etsy jointly liable if a seller's German VAT goes unpaid. The result, when something goes wrong, is also identical: Etsy deactivates listings until the seller produces a valid German VAT number, and the Finanzamt issues retroactive assessments for periods the seller should have been registered for.
Three patterns dominate the cases we see:
Practical check: if you sell on Etsy AND on your own website or another marketplace, you almost certainly need your own German VAT registration. The Etsy deemed-supplier rules apply only to Etsy-platform transactions and only in specific scenarios; everything else is on you.
When Etsy is the deemed supplier under §3 Abs. 3a UStG, the VAT collected on those orders is remitted by Etsy directly to the tax authorities; it is excluded from your own VAT return. When Etsy is not the deemed supplier, the VAT shown on the order is yours to remit, and the transaction goes into your UStVA.
The split shows up clearly in the Etsy Sold Orders CSV: there are explicit columns for VAT paid by buyer versus VAT remitted by Etsy. Vaytax customers upload that CSV (or enter the totals manually) and we separate the marketplace-collected sales from the seller-collected sales in the monthly return automatically.
Digital products on Etsy (printable art, knitting patterns, SVG files, etc.) are a separate compliance lane. EU-wide rules require VAT collection on every digital sale to an EU consumer, regardless of seller size. Many digital-only Etsy sellers use OSS to consolidate this into one quarterly return through their home-country tax office; that's usually the simplest path. Local German registration is needed only if you have non-digital VAT obligations in Germany too.
Two cost traps Etsy sellers run into:
Once you have your Steuernummer, the monthly rhythm is simple:
No per-transaction or per-channel fees. The price you see covers your routine recurring filings; one-off work like backfiling or disputes is always quoted up front.
New to German VAT · Path A
German VAT registration included. Charged in full at signup. Renews yearly.
What's included
Already registered · Path B
Already hold a German VAT number? Skip the registration fee and move straight into monthly filing. €853/year if you pay annually (about €71/month, roughly 10% off).
Or €853 billed yearly. No registration fee.
Common pattern for marketplace sellers: you crossed a German storage or sales threshold months ago and only just discovered the obligation. We file the missing UStVAs retroactively at the same flat €79 per filing, charged once at signup. Pick the first period you need us to file when you register, and we'll catch you up while we handle every month going forward.
The Finanzamt may issue late-filing surcharges (Verspätungszuschlag) directly to your company for any retroactive period. Those are independent of our fees, and we file as quickly as possible to keep them small.
From €99, no subscription, nothing to pay until you accept. Schätzbescheid, Mahnung, Anhörung.
For some transactions, yes. Under §3 Abs. 3a UStG (the EU-wide deemed-supplier rule), Etsy collects and remits VAT for: (a) goods sold by non-EU sellers shipped to EU consumers with a value at or below €150 (IOSS), and (b) goods sold by non-EU sellers from EU-stored inventory to EU consumers. For everything else, including EU-established sellers' own sales and B2B transactions, the seller is the taxable supplier and must file their own VAT returns.
Three triggers: (1) you store goods in Germany (a German fulfilment provider, a German warehouse, dropshipping through a German wholesaler), no threshold applies; (2) you ship B2C from outside Germany into Germany and your total EU-wide cross-border B2C sales exceed €10,000 per year; (3) you sell digital downloads or services to German consumers without using OSS. The deemed-supplier collection by Etsy covers narrow scenarios; outside those, your own registration is required.
Yes. Etsy is an electronic marketplace within the scope of §22f UStG and reports seller transaction data to the German tax authorities on request. The Finanzamt uses §22f data to identify sellers who should have registered but didn't, then issues retroactive assessments (Schätzbescheide). The associated joint-and-several liability under §25e is the same regime that drives the Amazon enforcement cycle. (Background: §25e explainer.)
No. Germany does not require fiscal representation for EU or non-EU sellers; a licensed German Steuerberater acting as your tax agent is sufficient. Some compliance providers charge Etsy sellers €1,000+/year for fiscal representation that has no legal basis under German law. Vaytax registers you directly through the Steuerberater on the €1,199/year all-in plan, registration included. If you already hold a German VAT number, filing-only is €79/month.
One German VAT registration covers all your sales channels. Etsy sales not collected by Etsy as deemed supplier, your own website sales, and any other channels file together on a single monthly UStVA. Vaytax separates marketplace-collected VAT (excluded from your return) from your own VAT (included) on the dashboard.
You export your Etsy "Sold Orders" CSV monthly (Shop Manager → Settings → Options → Download Data). The file shows transaction-level data including taxes Etsy collected on your behalf. You enter the net totals into the Vaytax dashboard; we separate marketplace-deemed-supplier sales from your own taxable sales, generate the UStVA, and file with the Finanzamt. Typically 5 minutes of your time per month.
€1,199/year all-in if you need German VAT registration, which is included: monthly UStVA, annual Umsatzsteuer-Jahreserklärung, ZM filings, all Finanzamt correspondence handled. Already have a German VAT number? Filing-only is €79/month, or €853/year (10% saving on the monthly rate). No per-transaction fees, no per-channel surcharges. Same flat fee whether you sell on Etsy only or on Etsy plus Shopify plus your own store.
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