One plan for German and French VAT, extras only when you need them

At signup. The Standard all-in plan (€1,299/year) is charged in full at signup and covers your German VAT registration plus the year's monthly or quarterly and annual returns. If you already hold a German tax number, Standard starts billing at signup with the first month (€99) or the first twelve months (€1,099). Extras you add at signup are charged with the first payment.

All routine filings: the monthly or quarterly VAT return (UStVA) every period, the EC sales list (ZM), plus the annual VAT return (Jahreserklärung), nil returns included. There is no per-filing charge for this routine cadence. On monthly billing the annual return for a year is included when the plan covers July to December of that year; join later and that year's annual return is a one-time €599. Two things sit outside the flat price: catch-up filings for periods before you joined (€99 per past return) and corrections of an already-submitted return (Berichtigung), €99 each.

Two ways, never both at once, and card is not one of them. With a direct-debit mandate (SEPA-Lastschriftmandat) the tax office collects the amount on your return on its own schedule, usually around the due date. The mandate counts only once the office has confirmed it, which takes a few weeks after we lodge it, and the office requires the form signed by hand. Until it is confirmed, you transfer each return yourself to the tax office's account with the reference we show you (tax number, period, company). Once your dashboard shows that we collect by direct debit, do not transfer manually: the office then debits the same amount again, and getting the second payment back needs a written request, takes weeks, and small surcharges are sometimes held back. If your company banks outside the SEPA area, expect to stay on the transfer route. If you are unsure which state you are in, ask us before you transfer.

Yes, on every plan. Every letter from the tax office comes to us. We read it and tell you in plain English what it means, what you need to do, and by when. Routine letters we answer for you, included in your plan: reminders, questions about a return we filed, follow-up questions on your registration, requests for a document you have already given us, address or bank changes. If a letter needs more than a routine answer, such as an objection (Einspruch), an estimated assessment (Schätzbescheid), an audit, or a penalty to dispute, we tell you and send a fixed quote before we start (€200 per hour). We also warn you before an objection deadline on an assessment notice runs out.

Yes. Registration only is €499 one-time. We prepare and submit your tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung) and answer the Finanzamt's follow-up questions until your German tax number (Steuernummer) is issued, usually in 4 to 8 weeks (individual tax offices can take considerably longer), and until your VAT ID (USt-IdNr) follows. Our mandate ends when both numbers are issued and we then withdraw our power of attorney (Vollmacht); VAT returns are not included, and filing them is your responsibility unless you add a filing plan (Standard €99/month or €1,099/year, with no further registration fee). For comparison, €499 plus the €1,099 yearly filing plan comes to €1,598 in year one, against €1,299 for the Standard all-in.

Yes. Registration only in France is €599 one-time, charged in full at signup. We prepare your registration dossier, file it with the French tax office for foreign businesses (SIEE) and answer the tax office's follow-up questions until your French VAT number is issued, usually one to three months after filing. Our mandate ends when the number is issued and we then revoke our authorisation (mandat); French VAT returns (CA3) are not included, and filing them is your responsibility unless you add the French filing plan (Standard €139/month or €1,499/year, with no further registration fee). For comparison, €599 plus the €1,499 yearly filing plan comes to €2,098 in year one, against €1,699 for the Standard all-in. You can also combine it with a German plan in one order, for example German filings plus a French registration.

Germany issues two numbers from two authorities. The tax number (Steuernummer, in the form 26/123/45678) comes first, from your tax office (Finanzamt). Your German VAT is owed from the start of your activity in Germany, not from that day; the returns for every period since then are filed once the tax number arrives. The VAT number (USt-IdNr, "DE" plus nine digits) comes by post from the federal office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt), often together with the tax number, otherwise usually a few weeks later. Amazon and the other marketplaces accept only the VAT number; the tax number is rejected there. We tell you the day each one arrives. A number ending in "-00001" is a third one, the business identification number (Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer), and works on neither form.

Only extras you choose, never anything triggered automatically by your sales. You can add them when you sign up or later, on request.

• Before your number: priority registration (€199 one-time: your registration questionnaire goes to the tax office within one working day of your documents being complete; the office's own processing time is not covered); and the setup review (€249 one-time: a written statement on your VAT setup, covering sales channels, stock locations, OSS, EORI, the filing extension and points to watch, within 30 days of payment and the details we ask for, once per client).
• Every year: the filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung: €199 per calendar year if you file monthly, included at no extra charge if you file quarterly; booked in your account once your filing frequency is known, not at signup; we apply at the next window and the tax office decides; any special prepayment (Sondervorauszahlung) it asks for is separate from our fee and paid by you directly; a change of filing frequency applies from the following year); the stock module for stock moved between your warehouses in different EU countries (€499 a year, and €499 for each earlier year we file for you: we value the movements from your price list, report them on your German return and prepare the pro-forma invoices; it is part of your order when you tell us at signup that your goods are stored in more than one EU country); corrections of an already-filed return (Berichtigung, €99 each).
• Advisor time: a written response to a tax-office letter or one-off tax advice, €200 per hour, quoted before any work.
• Past returns: when you move to us with a German tax number already issued, returns for periods before you joined (€99 per past return) and an earlier year's annual return (€599).

After signup, in your account: OSS for cross-border sales to consumers in other EU countries (€300 to register, then €200 per quarter) and a German EORI number for customs (€199 one-time), which applies only where German customs is responsible for issuing you one, meaning your company has its own staff and premises in Germany. Most sellers need no EORI of their own: an EU company already holds one from its own country that is valid across the EU, and a company outside the EU normally has its freight forwarder declare as indirect representative on the forwarder's number. None of these is required for a routine German VAT setup.

It depends on where your company is established and on who declares your imports. A company established in an EU country gets its EORI once, from its own country's customs, and that number is valid for imports into Germany; Germany does not issue a second one, and we cannot apply in another country for you. A company established outside the EU that ships to Amazon or a 3PL and lets the carrier clear customs does not need its own EORI either: the carrier declares under its number, and German customs refuses an application in that case. Only a company outside the EU that will declare imports into Germany in its own name needs a German EORI, and that is the case our €199 EORI application add-on is for. We ask these questions before you can buy it. What Germany requires from every foreign seller with stock here, whatever the customs setup, is the VAT registration; that is a tax matter, independent of customs.

Every clean-up is quoted in writing before we start and paid before we start. Two or three open years with an estimated assessment (Schätzbescheid) to overturn: we quote the actual periods and the work in writing before we start, the returns themselves included. For single jobs, these are what cases have actually cost, net of VAT: a written response to a hearing letter (Anhörung) or an objection (Einspruch) is €400 to €800. Closing a number properly, with the nil returns the office demands, is €600; bringing a deregistered number back is from €400. Anything outside those lines is quoted by the hour at €200. Upload the letter and you get the quote within 24 hours on weekdays.

Yearly plans run for twelve months and renew yearly at your current price; either side can end the plan at the end of the term with one month's notice, and the year you have paid for runs to its end. The monthly plan (Standard, for a business already registered) can be cancelled at any time, effective at the end of the following month, so we can close out any open filings cleanly and hand over your records. Fees are paid in advance. A fee is earned once we start the work it pays for and is not refunded; if you cancel before we start, the amount becomes credit for other Vaytax services for 12 months.

Nothing separate: the change of representation is handled as part of onboarding. If past returns are still unfiled when you switch, we catch them up at €99 per past return. There is no lock-in on our side either.

Very little on day one: your work email, your name, your company name and its country. You pay first and then upload the paperwork at your own pace inside your account.

What we will ask for during onboarding: - an extract from your commercial register, or your formation document (a scan is normally enough; a paper that is not in German may need a translation; a plain translation is normally enough, and we check what your tax office needs) - a passport or ID copy of the managing director - a power of attorney (Vollmacht): we prefill it, you print it, sign it by hand and upload it - your marketplace accounts and web shop, if any (the names are enough) - your existing German tax number (Steuernummer), if you already have one - for a new registration: what you sell, to whom, and where the goods move

Nothing has to be ready before you pay.