Turkish founder, UK Ltd, German customers. Which country's rules bind us?
A large share of the sellers entering Germany run a UK Ltd or US LLC owned from Turkey, China, Pakistan or the Gulf. The recurring worry: does the owner's nationality complicate the German side?
The company's establishment governs. The owner's passport is irrelevant.
German VAT attaches to the legal entity making the supplies and asks one question: where is it established? A UK Ltd is a UK-established business, so it routes to Finanzamt Hannover-Nord with the UK document set, whoever owns the shares. A US LLC routes to Bonn-Innenstadt. Your residency, citizenship or where you sit while running the store plays no role in the VAT registration.
The registration duty itself follows the usual triggers: German stock means registering from the first unit; DDP imports shift sales into Germany; pure cross-border DAP shipping from outside the EU generally does not. Ownership never appears in that analysis.
Establishment, not nationality
The Finanzamt's routing regulation (UStZustV) assigns offices by the country where the business is established. The shareholders' and directors' nationalities are not part of the test. What the Finanzamt does verify is that the entity is real and reachable: certificate of incorporation, proof of the registered office, and identification of the people authorised to sign, which is where your passport appears, purely as ID.
One honest caveat outside VAT: if the company is managed entirely from another country, corporate-tax rules (place of effective management) can raise separate questions in the UK, the owner's country, or both. That is corporate income tax territory, not VAT, and worth its own advice. The German VAT registration neither triggers nor resolves it.
What actually differs for foreign-owned entities
In our files, nothing about the German process changes: same forms, same office, same 4 to 8 week wait, same monthly filings. Where foreign-owned setups occasionally hit friction is banking and marketplace verification (Amazon's own KYC), both of which happen outside the tax process and before we are involved.
If you have not yet chosen the entity: sellers sometimes assume a UK Ltd or US LLC unlocks easier German VAT. It does not; Germany treats every non-EU establishment equivalently. Choose the entity for banking, liability and platform reasons, not for the Finanzamt.
Registering a foreign-owned entity
- Register the entity, not the owner. UK Ltd goes to Hannover-Nord with UK documents; US LLC to Bonn-Innenstadt with US documents; the owner's country never enters the routing.
- Have the signer's ID ready. The managing director signs the Vollmacht by hand and provides passport ID, whatever the nationality.
- Answer the establishment questions honestly. Registered office, actual activity, bank details. Mailbox-only setups get questioned; real operations do not.
- File monthly once the number arrives. €1,199 per year all-in: German VAT registration, all monthly filings and the annual return, billed yearly starting at signup, or €79 per month (or €853 per year) once you already hold a German Steuernummer.
Your entity is welcome here, whoever owns it.
English onboarding, documents checked against the right country's list, and a licensed German tax advisor on record with the Finanzamt.
Start the registration Licensed German tax advisor · English throughout · No calls requiredAsked about this setup
No. Routing and treatment follow the company's establishment (UK), so Hannover-Nord processes it with the UK document set. The owner's nationality appears only on the ID of whoever signs the power of attorney.
Yes: a Turkey-established company routes to Finanzamt Dortmund-Unna under the UStZustV. Same obligations, different office. The entity you sell through decides the routing.
For the German VAT process itself they are equivalent: both are non-EU establishments with the same obligations and timelines. Choose based on banking, marketplace verification and liability, not on the Finanzamt.
No. The Vollmacht is signed by hand, scanned and uploaded wherever the director happens to be. What matters is that the signer is authorised per the company documents.
Sources & official references