Two plans: one for a simple setup, one for when it gets complex

At signup. The all-in plans (Standard €1,299/year, Pro €1,999/year) are charged in full at signup and cover 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); Pro is billed yearly only (€1,799 at signup).

Pro is Standard plus: a person compares each return with the report you uploaded before filing and flags every deviation; stock moved between EU warehouses valued and filed from your price list on your German returns (the stock-movement (Verbringen) valuation); four hours of licensed German tax advisor (Steuerberater) time a year, one block across Germany and France, for hearings, assessment checks, written responses and transaction questions; a warning before an objection deadline on an assessment runs out; five corrections per contract year; the filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung) and priority registration included; a named contact who replies within 24 hours on working days; your price held for three years in writing. Every plan already has every letter read and explained, the automatic double check, the annual return matched against the year's returns and your accountant in copy. Pro is €1,999/year for Germany (€1,799/year if you already hold a German tax number) and €2,399/year for France (€2,199/year if already registered), billed yearly only. In both plans you enter and confirm your own figures, and they remain your responsibility.

All routine filings, on both plans: 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 on Standard; Pro includes five per contract year, then €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, in both plans. We are your authorised recipient in Germany: letters from the Finanzamt that reach us are uploaded to your dashboard, read and explained in plain English (what it says, what it means, what to do) with the deadline named. Routine correspondence with the office (reminders and dunning notices, queries on filed returns, registration follow-ups) is handled in both plans. Doing the work on a substantial letter, such as a written response to a hearing or an objection to an assessment, is priced: on Standard we quote it first, at €200 per hour; on Pro it comes from your included hours, then we quote. Pro also warns you before an objection deadline on an assessment notice runs out. A tax audit is quoted separately in both plans.

Yes. Registration only is €499 one-time. We prepare and submit your tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung) and handle the Finanzamt correspondence until your German tax number (Steuernummer) is issued, usually in 4 to 8 weeks (individual tax offices can take considerably longer). Our mandate ends when the number is 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, Pro €1,799/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 handle the correspondence 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, Pro €2,199/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). From that day you are registered for German VAT, you may store goods in Germany and sell, and your first return is due for that period. The VAT number (USt-IdNr, "DE" plus nine digits) comes two to three weeks later, by post, from the federal office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt). 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 optional services you actively choose, never anything triggered automatically by your sales. The optional add-ons are: OSS for cross-border B2C sales to consumers in other EU countries (€300 to register, then €200 per quarter, in neither plan); a German EORI number for customs (€199 one-time, or at no cost if you apply yourself at the Zoll), 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. Also available: priority registration (€199 on Standard, included in Pro: your registration questionnaire goes to the tax office within one working day of your documents being complete); the filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung, €199 a year on Standard, included in Pro); corrections of an already-filed return (€99 each on Standard; Pro includes five per contract year, then €99); a written response to a tax-office letter or one-off tax advice (€200 per hour, quoted before any work; on Pro the included hours come first); and catch-up filing of returns for periods before you joined (€99 per past return). 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; the figures below are what cases have actually cost, net of VAT. Two to three open years with an estimated assessment (Schätzbescheid) to overturn typically come to €1,500 to €3,000, the returns themselves included. 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 each year: to stop the renewal, cancel at least one month before the term ends, 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.

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 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.