Everything a non-German company needs to handle German VAT, from when you must register to how filing, OSS, Amazon FBA, penalties and marketplace liability actually work. Each section links to a free tool that does the work for you.
Last updated 13 June 2026
A foreign company must register for German VAT whenever it makes a taxable supply in Germany, and the most common trigger by far is storing stock in a German warehouse.
The moment your inventory sits in Germany, including when Amazon moves it into a German fulfilment centre under Pan-EU FBA, you have a taxable presence and registration is mandatory before you sell a single unit from that stock. Other triggers include shipping B2C goods to German consumers from German stock, and certain services. Pure B2B services to German businesses under the reverse charge usually do not require registration.
Take the 60-second VAT check →There is no turnover threshold for a foreign company that stores stock in Germany: registration is due from the first euro.
The €10,000 figure people remember is the EU-wide distance-selling threshold, and it applies only to cross-border B2C sales under the One-Stop-Shop. It does nothing for stock physically held in Germany. The small-business exemption (Kleinunternehmerregelung) is also generally unavailable to foreign sellers with German stock.
Germany routes foreign companies to one of about two dozen centralised Finanzämter by country of company seat, under the Umsatzsteuerzuständigkeitsverordnung (UStZustV).
UK companies go to Finanzamt Hannover-Nord, US companies to Bonn-Innenstadt, Chinese companies to Berlin International, and Polish companies are split four ways by company-name initial. Each office has its own payment IBAN, so paying the wrong account causes delays.
Find your Finanzamt + IBAN →The core set is short and the same everywhere: proof your company exists, its articles, a passport, and a signed power of attorney. What changes by country is the name of the company document and whether it must be apostilled.
A UK company shows a Certificate of Incorporation; a US LLC shows Articles of Organization plus the IRS EIN letter; a Chinese company shows its business licence (apostilled, since China joined the Apostille Convention on 7 November 2023). EU-issued documents usually need no apostille.
Get your document checklist by country →Typically 6 to 12 weeks from a complete application to the Steuernummer, with the USt-IdNr following 1 to 2 weeks later.
Missing or incorrectly certified documents are the single biggest cause of delay. A well-prepared application submitted by a licensed tax advisor lands at the shorter end of that range.
Germany does not require fiscal representation for standard VAT registration and filing, for any third-country business, including the US, UK, China and Switzerland.
A licensed German tax advisor acting as your agent is sufficient. If a provider quotes a separate "fiscal representation" fee of €1,000 to €3,000 a year for standard VAT compliance, ask for the legal basis, because there isn't one.
Read the fiscal-rep guide →You file a preliminary VAT return (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung) monthly or quarterly via ELSTER, plus one annual return (Umsatzsteuererklärung) that reconciles the year.
New registrations file monthly for the first two years. From 2025, the frequency thresholds are: monthly if annual VAT exceeds €9,000, quarterly between €2,000 and €9,000. A Dauerfristverlängerung buys one extra month per deadline. The annual return is due by 31 July of the following year, or later through a tax advisor.
Decode the German terms →The One-Stop-Shop lets you report cross-border B2C sales across the EU in one quarterly return, but it never replaces a German registration triggered by stored stock.
A non-EU seller with German stock uses Union OSS with Germany as the Member State of Identification; an EU-established seller files OSS in their home country. OSS is not iOSS, which is a separate import scheme for parcels at or under €150.
Do I need OSS? →Each Amazon fulfilment program triggers a different set of VAT registrations, because storing stock in a country creates a local obligation there that OSS does not cover.
Pan-EU FBA stores in five countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland), so it needs five registrations; CEE needs three (Germany, Poland, Czechia); EFN or single-country FBA needs one, plus OSS for the cross-border selling.
Check your FBA registrations →Germany stacks separate charges on late VAT: a late-payment surcharge of 1% per month, a late-filing surcharge of up to 10% (capped at €25,000), and interest at 0.15% per month after a 15-month grace period.
If you do not file at all, the Finanzamt issues a Schätzbescheid, an estimated bill set deliberately high (often 2 to 5 times the real liability) that becomes binding if you do not object within one month.
Since 2019, marketplaces like Amazon are jointly liable for unpaid VAT unless every seller is properly registered, which is why platforms demand a valid German VAT number and will suspend sellers without one.
The rules took effect for non-EU sellers on 1 March 2019 and for EU sellers on 1 October 2019. In practice, a missing or invalid German USt-IdNr risks a listing suspension or VAT withholding by the marketplace.
With Vaytax, €1,199 per year all-in if you need registration (it is included), or €79 per month if you already have a German VAT number.
The plan covers the monthly USt-Voranmeldung, the annual return, filing with the Finanzamt and all tax-office correspondence, handled by a licensed German tax advisor. No per-transaction fees and no fiscal-representation surcharge.
Free to cite with a link: Vaytax, "German VAT for Foreign Sellers: The Complete 2026 Guide", https://vaytax.com/german-vat-guide
Registration, monthly filings and the annual return, by a licensed German tax advisor. €1,199/year all-in with registration included, or €79/month if you already have a German VAT number.
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