What is included, what costs extra, and what happens when something goes wrong

1. What your yearly plan includes

The yearly plan covers your German VAT from the start: the VAT registration if you do not have a German tax number yet, every monthly or quarterly VAT return (UStVA) including nil returns, the annual VAT return (Jahreserklärung), and the EC sales list (Zusammenfassende Meldung) whenever one is due, for example when you sell to businesses in other EU countries. You upload your sales report or enter your figures; we check them and file the return. You pay the VAT to the tax office, by direct debit or transfer. We never hold your money.

Letters from the tax office (Finanzamt) work in three tiers:

• Letters: we read them and tell you what to do. Letters from the office that reach us we read and explain in plain English: what it means, what you need to do, and by when. If a letter reaches you directly (the activation code, for example, may be posted to you), send us a photo of it from your dashboard.
• Routine letters: we answer for you, included. 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.
• Beyond routine: a quote before we start. 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 (EUR 200 per hour; Pro includes 4 advisor hours a year).

2. What costs extra, and when we tell you

Some work sits outside the plan: an objection, the response to an estimated assessment, a tax audit, disputing a penalty, returns for periods before you joined us, corrections of a return already filed (on Standard; Pro includes five a year), and advice on your own case beyond routine questions.

You hear about it as soon as we see the work is needed, and always before any work starts. Each item either has a fixed price on the pricing page or gets a fixed quote before we start. Nothing is added to your bill because of your sales volume.

3. Audits and enquiries from the tax office

Every letter that reaches us is read and explained, an audit notice included, and routine enquiries are answered for you as part of your plan. A tax audit, or a special VAT audit (Umsatzsteuer-Sonderprüfung), is not part of either plan: we tell you what it involves and send a fixed quote before we start.

On Pro, the four advisor hours a year can be used for written responses and objections, and we warn you before an objection deadline runs out. When the hours are used up, we quote first, as on Standard.

4. Deadlines: your date with us

Each return has a deadline at the tax office and an earlier date with us: three working days before the office’s deadline. We always give it as a concrete date. For example, a monthly return for October is due at the office on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, so we ask for your figures by Thursday, 5 November.

If your figures reach us after your date with us, the return may be filed late. Any surcharge the tax office sets for a late return (Verspätungszuschlag) is then yours to pay, not ours. We say this now so it is never a surprise; how the office sets that surcharge is explained in our guide to late-filing penalties.

5. If we make a mistake

If a return is wrong because of a mistake on our side, we correct it at no charge. A penalty caused by a mistake on our side is our responsibility. A penalty caused by figures that reach us late or incorrect sits with you.

6. If the tax office takes longer than 8 weeks

The office usually takes 4 to 8 weeks to issue a tax number, and some take longer. If yours does, your fee does not change and does not go down, and we keep following up with the office until your tax number and VAT ID are issued. Current waiting times by office are on our processing times page.

7. If a registration cannot be completed

The fee covers preparing and submitting your registration and answering the tax office’s questions about it. Whether to issue the numbers is the tax office’s decision. If it refuses the registration, the fee is not refunded: it paid for the work, not for the outcome.

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.

8. Who checks your return before it is filed

On every plan, each report you upload and each return goes through an automatic double check, and a licensed German tax advisor reviews it for plausibility and releases it before it is filed. On Pro, a member of our team also compares each return with the reports you uploaded. Who we are and how to check us is on who does the work.

Still have a question?

Our FAQ covers more detail, and how it works shows the steps from sign-up to your first return. Or write to us: we answer in writing, in English.