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I'm an owner of an Estonian company and I want to have a warehouse in Germany and sell resp. send my products out of it. I was told that I need to get a VAT number in Germany. Could you please advise how to make it?

Antwort

In principle, a foreign company without a registered office in Germany must register for VAT with the German tax office for sales that are taxable in Germany, pay the tax and submit a tax return. For this purpose, the company must register for VAT with the responsible tax office.

According to Section 21, Para 1, sentence 2 of the German Fiscal Code and Sec 1. Para 1 No. 4 of the Value Added Tax Jurisdiction Ordinance – the tax office in the city of Rostock is competent for companies resident in Estonia. Please refer to the information provided in the links below for detailed information:

www.steuerportal-mv.de/Service/Merkbl%C3%A4tter/
www.steuerportal-mv.de/static/Regierungsportal/Finanzministerium/Steuerportal/Inhalte/Estland%201%20Unternehmer.pdf

In 2021, the European Union introduced a new system of VAT One-Stop-Shops for certain distance sales of goods and services within the EU. The European Commission provides detailed information on the procedure: https://vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu/index_en.

Please understand that GTAI is not in a position to provide any kind of binding legal or tax advice. Please contact a lawyer and/ or tax advisor for individual binding advice.

The online tax advisor search of the Federal Tax Advisor Chamber can help you find a tax consultant through applying different criteria such as location, language, industry or specific expert knowledge – also for specifics concerning international tax law concerning Estonia. In addition, the German Tax Advisor Association (DStV) also offers a corresponding search function.

If in future your company plans to open an own business entity in Germany, we would be available for further insights (invest@gtai.com).

In the meantime, please refer to our Investment Guide to Germany and our publication Investor’s Basics – Setting up Business in Germany.

Quelle:
GERMANY TRADE & INVEST

Oktober 2022