German VAT, one fixed price.

Two separate clocks. Your Vaytax subscription (€79/month) starts from the moment you sign up with us. We use the first 4 to 8 weeks to prepare your registration form (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung), submit it to the Finanzamt, and handle any back-and-forth with them until your Steuernummer is issued. In that window there are no VAT returns yet, but real work is happening on your file.

The filing obligation is a different question. It begins with the start of your business activity in Germany, not automatically with Steuernummer issuance. Two rules combine here:

• You can't generate sales in Germany before you have your Steuernummer. Until the Finanzamt issues it, there's no legal basis to charge German VAT.
• Your activity start date is something you declare yourself, in the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung. If your goods, stock, or operation won't actually be live in Germany for several months, you put that later date as your activity start. Monthly UStVA filings (and our monthly fee) begin from that date, not from the day the Steuernummer is issued.

In practice: you control when the filing clock starts by choosing the right activity start in the Fragebogen. We help you set it correctly so you don't pay for filings during months you're not yet active. Our VAT check takes 30 seconds and helps you decide whether registering now or later makes sense.

No. €79/month covers your complete monthly VAT filing, annual declaration, ZM, and all standard tax-office correspondence. If you need a new German VAT number, registration is included in the €1,199/year all-in plan (no separate fee).

No. The Zusammenfassende Meldung (ZM, the German EC Sales List) is included in your monthly fee, whether you file one a quarter or one a month. The same goes for routine Finanzamt correspondence: address changes, deadline confirmations, payment queries, standard audit document requests, all included. Only complex audit defence or extended advisory work is billed at the €200/hr advisory rate.

Yes, and the compliance picture is actually simpler. B2B sales to dealers in other EU countries are reverse-charge supplies, reported on your monthly UStVA and on the ZM (both included). You do not need OSS at all (OSS is B2C-only). If your model is "stock in a German 3PL, ship to dealers across the EU," the German VAT registration plus monthly compliance is everything you need, and that is exactly what we do.

Two answers, depending on where the VAT was paid.

German VAT (hotel in Berlin, taxi in Munich, stand at a Düsseldorf Messe): yes, reclaimed automatically through your monthly UStVA. Upload the invoices in your client area and we book the input VAT.

Other-EU VAT (Italian hotel, French trade fair, Polish exhibition fees): not included. These are recovered through a 13th Directive refund application, a separate procedure with different deadlines and rules. We do not file these as standard compliance work, but we can quote on request.

Full guide: how to reclaim VAT on German business trips →

Each legal entity needs its own plan, we file under each company's separate Tax ID. Group discounts available for 3+ companies, email contact@vaytax.com.

Yes. Even zero-revenue months require a €0 VAT return filing. That work still takes time and counts toward your subscription.

No. Scheduling VAT payments with the tax office is included. The tax office pulls the money directly from your account, we don't hold client funds.

Yes. Cancellation is effective at the end of the following month, so we can close out any open filings cleanly and hand off your records.

No. Our clients are foreign (non-German) businesses, so under the EU place-of-supply rules for B2B services (§3a Abs. 2 UStG) the place of supply is your country, not Germany. We do not add German VAT to your invoice. For EU clients with a valid VAT ID, the reverse charge mechanism applies and you self-account in your country. For non-EU clients, no VAT is added at all.

All routine filings: the monthly VAT return (UStVA) every month, plus the annual VAT return. There is no per-filing charge for this routine cadence. Two things sit outside the flat price: catch-up filings for months before you joined (€79 per past month) and corrections to an already-submitted return (a Berichtigung), which we quote per case.

Both. The portal captures your figures and runs plausibility checks; a licensed German Steuerberater then reviews and files every return. The review covers the VAT return itself (correct treatment and plausibility), not full bookkeeping or a line-by-line review of your underlying invoices, which would be a separate service.

Yes. Routine correspondence about your filings (acknowledgements, standard queries, routine letters) is included. More complex matters, a full audit, or substantive tax advice are quoted separately before any work starts.

Nothing separate: the change of representation is handled as part of onboarding. If past months are still unfiled when you switch, we catch them up at €79 per past month. There is no lock-in on our side either.

At signup. The €1,199/year all-in plan is charged in full at signup and covers your German VAT registration plus the year's monthly and annual returns. The €79/month plan (for companies that already have a German tax number) starts billing at signup with the first month.

Union OSS (One-Stop-Shop) lets a non-EU-established seller with stock in Germany report B2C sales to other EU countries through one quarterly return, filed via Germany. It costs €250 one-time plus €150 per quarter. You only need it if you ship cross-border to consumers in other EU countries above €10,000 per year EU-wide. If you sell only within Germany, you do not need OSS. If your company is established in another EU country, your OSS registration belongs in your home country, not Germany.