For partners
Your German VAT desk,
without adding a German firm to your group
You keep the client and the relationship. We hold the German mandate and do the part that only a licensed German tax advisor (Steuerberater) may do: filing with the tax office (Finanzamt) and dealing with it on your client's behalf.
Vaytax is operated by FRADECO GmbH Deutsch-Französische Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, a German tax advisory firm registered with the Steuerberaterkammer Rheinland-Pfalz. Verify us in the official federal register →
Why firms come to us
The one thing that cannot be outsourced to software
Most firms that approach us already do the hard commercial parts well. They find the client, understand the flows, gather the data and keep the deadlines. What stops at the German border is narrower than it looks.
In Germany, filing tax returns for someone else on a commercial basis is reserved to licensed professionals, and only a licensed tax advisor can be recorded as a company's representative before the Finanzamt.
§§ 3, 3a Steuerberatungsgesetz
That is the piece we supply. Not the client relationship, not the data collection, not the software. Just the German mandate and the professional standing behind it, so your client is properly represented and their returns are filed by someone entitled to file them.
Scope
What we take on
Per client company, whichever of your clients you place with us.
German VAT registration
The tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung), submission, and the follow-up correspondence until the tax number (Steuernummer) is issued.
Ongoing returns
Monthly or quarterly preliminary VAT returns (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung, UStVA), whichever frequency the tax office assigns, filed electronically.
The annual return
The Umsatzsteuerjahreserklärung for each year we act, prepared from the year's filed returns and your client's own figures.
Past returns
Periods that were never filed, including where the tax office has issued estimated assessments (Schätzungsbescheide) in the meantime.
Correspondence and audits
Routine correspondence is included in the ongoing fee. Substantive matters and audits (Umsatzsteuer-Sonderprüfung, Betriebsprüfung) are hourly.
Deregistration
Quoted per case, because it varies far more than the filings do.
Prices
Published, and the same whoever the work comes through
These are the same prices your client would pay coming to us directly. They do not change because the work arrives through your firm, and there is no volume tier that quietly makes someone else's client cheaper than yours.
| Service | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Registration and filings | €1,499 / year | For a client with no German VAT number yet. The registration itself, every preliminary return, the annual return, and routine tax office correspondence. |
| Filings only | €99 / month or €1,099 / year |
Where the client already holds a German tax number and you are moving the compliance work across. |
| Past returns | €99 per return | Per unfiled period. One late quarter is one return, not three months. |
| Hourly work | €200 / hour | Audits, substantive correspondence, and anything outside the routine cycle. Audits are not fixed-priced before we have seen the case. |
Fees are payable before the work starts. Where your firm is established in the EU and holds a valid VAT identification number, our invoices reach you under the reverse charge with no German VAT added.
How the mandate works
Your client engages us. You can still receive the invoice.
This is the part most worth settling before a first case, because it cannot be arranged the other way round.
You send us the case
Where the company is established, what it does in Germany, and whether it already holds a German tax number. That is enough to confirm the route and the price.
Your client signs the power of attorney
The engagement and the power of attorney (Vollmacht) have to come from the end client, the company whose tax it is. It is printed, signed by hand and returned as a scan. A typed signature is not accepted, because a German tax office has rejected one.
They book through your link, you get the invoice
We issue your firm its own registration link. Your client opens it, registers in their own name, and reaches checkout at €0: nothing is charged to them and no card is asked for. We invoice your firm instead, and you bill your client whatever you bill them.
Not a hypothetical structure
A European VAT practice agreed these exact terms with us this month.
They advise clients on VAT across their own region and do not offer German filing, because they cannot. Rather than turn the work away or hand it to a firm their client has never heard of, they place it with us and stay the client-facing party throughout. Their clients come to us on the terms set out on this page: engagement from the end client, invoice to the firm, published prices, no fee flowing back either way.
What they asked for, and got
- We receive the Finanzamt post, and flag in English anything needing a reply, a payment or a deadline.
- Payment by invoice on terms, rather than a card at checkout.
- A clear split: their client owns the figures, we run a plausibility check and query anything that looks wrong.
Working with us day to day
One place to see where all your clients stand
At two or three companies, email is enough. At ten it is not, so this is what we intend to build.
Preview · not live yet| Client company | Stage | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Northbound Trading LtdUnited Kingdom · registration | Fragebogen submitted | Awaiting tax number |
| Alpine Components s.r.o.Czechia · monthly returns | UStVA August | Filed 8 Sep |
| Meridian Foods B.V.Netherlands · monthly returns | UStVA August | Figures needed |
| Kestrel Digital Inc.United States · annual return | Jahreserklärung 2025 | Filed 21 Aug |
Every letter from the tax office posted against the client it belongs to, with a plain-English summary of what it asks for and by when.
To be straight about it: the console above is a design, not a screen you can log into. We show it because firms ask what the day to day looks like, and because we would rather build it to what you actually need than guess. If shared visibility is what would decide it for your firm, say so when you write, and it moves up the queue.
Why we do not pay referral fees
Not a policy. A prohibition.
A German tax advisor may neither give nor accept any part of the fees, or any other benefit, in return for the referral of work, to a third party of any kind.
§ 9 Steuerberatungsgesetz
We mention it openly because firms ask, and because a prohibition is a better answer than a vague no. It binds both sides, so a competitor offering your firm a per-registration commission is offering you a professional-conduct problem along with it. Our prices are published and identical whoever the work arrives through. If you want a margin, charge your own client your own fee for what your firm does.
Limits
What we do not do
Worth reading before you plan around us, because these come up regularly.
Other countries
We file German returns, and French ones. Not Austrian, Italian, Spanish or Polish. France is limited to clients established in the EU or on the French exemption list, because France otherwise requires a fiscal representative.
Fiscal representation
We never take it on, anywhere. It carries joint liability for the client's tax. Germany does not require one in any case, which is why a foreign company can register there in its own name.
Customs declarations
Not ours. Your client's freight forwarder makes the entry. The German import VAT then flows into the German return, and that part is ours.
Bookkeeping
We file from figures your client or your firm provides. We do not build the underlying accounts, and we will say so rather than quote for it.
Personal liability proceedings
Where a matter has moved from the company's tax to a director's personal liability, that is usually a lawyer's work rather than a tax advisor's, and we will tell you when we think it has.
Construction withholding
We do not apply for the Freistellungsbescheinigung under the construction withholding rules. It is a small fee for a disproportionate amount of work, so we would rather point you elsewhere than do it badly.
Send us a case
The fastest way to find out whether this works is one real client.
Tell us where the company is established, what it does in Germany, and whether it already holds a German tax number. That is enough to confirm the route and the price before anyone commits.
Send us a caseWritten answers within one business day · or email [email protected]
Questions
Common questions from firms
Can you act for our clients rather than for us directly?
Yes, and it is the only structure that works. The engagement and the power of attorney come from the end client, because the power of attorney is what allows a German tax advisor to act before the Finanzamt for that company. It has to be signed by hand by someone who can bind it. The invoice can be addressed to your firm.
Do you pay a referral commission?
No, and we are not permitted to. § 9 of the German Tax Advisory Act prohibits a German tax advisor from giving or receiving any part of the fees, or any other benefit, for the referral of work, to a third party of any kind. It binds the receiving side too, so a firm accepting such a commission has the same problem. Our prices are published and identical whoever the work comes through.
Which countries do you cover?
Germany and France. We do not file Austrian, Italian, Spanish or Polish returns. France is limited to clients established in the EU or in a country on the French exemption list, because France otherwise requires a fiscal representative and we do not act as one.
Can you deal with a German tax audit?
Yes, hourly at €200. We do not fix a price for an audit before seeing the case, because the auditor sets the workload rather than we do. Where a matter turns on a director's personal liability rather than on the tax itself, that is usually a lawyer's work and we will say so rather than take the fee.
How long does a German registration take?
Several weeks, and it has been getting longer. The clock starts when the application is submitted, not when the client signs up, and what the tax office does with it after that is outside anyone's control. We would rather give you that number than a shorter one you would have to explain to your client later.
Who actually does the work?
Vaytax is operated by FRADECO GmbH Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, a German tax advisory firm and a member of the Steuerberaterkammer Rheinland-Pfalz and listed in the official federal register of tax advisers (check the entry). The returns are prepared and filed in house. Nothing is subcontracted onwards.