According to the "Berlin Morning Post" reported on June 8, 2018, as of May 2017, Chinese Amazon merchants had a total of 432 tax registrations in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany. As of May 2018, this data has accumulated 1537 cases. In one year, the data has grown nearly four times. The number of relevant staff of the Berlin Taxation Bureau has also increased from one to nine. Various data show that the German tax bureau is paying more and more attention to the normative nature of the e-commerce market. On the other hand, more sellers are aware of the importance of tax obligations. Recently, many customers have received calls from Amazon, saying that the account of Amazon.com must be taxed before September 30, 2018. I believe that the e-commerce market will soon set off a wave of waves.

Our firm has recently collected and sorted out some questions that German VAT customers often ask, and hopes to help sellers and service providers.

1. Is there only an accounting firm in Germany?

In China, the most widely heard is the accounting firm. In Germany, in addition to accounting firms, there are tax and audit firms.

The accounting firm is mainly based on accounting bookkeeping and annual report of the company.

The scope of the tax office's work covers not only accounting and accounting, but also the annual report of the company. The most important part is the declaration of various taxes, such as the German annual VAT return. According to German law, accountants are not allowed to file tax returns.

Audit firms cover the widest range of businesses. In addition to the above accounting and tax office work, it also participates in the annual audit of the company's accounts.

Our GKRW is a firm that integrates accounting, taxation and auditing.

2. Do I need a German address to register VAT in Germany?

There will always be new customers asking us if the registration fee includes the German address fee. At the beginning, we were also full of doubts. Whether it is a European customer in Spain or Italy or an Asian customer in Japan or South Korea, we have always used the local address for VAT registration. And Chinese companies need to use German "fake" addresses? I learned a lot and found out that this is the impression that domestic service providers have brought to everyone. The German tax law does not mention the need to "hit" a German address in order to register a German VAT.

3. Do you need a German address for imported goods to Germany?

Then everyone may have doubts, how to import goods to Germany without a German address? The freight forwarder always said to everyone that "if there is no German address, the goods cannot be cleared and imported to Germany." The answer is: without a German address, you can smoothly import goods and customs clearance. Not only did we ask the German customs for this, but we also handled related matters in the near future.

The original reason is:

Customer A told us that they had a batch of goods that were cleared by the customs and could not be cleared. A German address is required, and if not processed in time, the goods will be returned to China. We immediately helped our customers to contact the logistics company in Germany and found that it was not a German address problem at all, but that the Chinese transportation company could not communicate smoothly with the German logistics company. In fact, German logistics companies only need a form they lack, but the Chinese freight forwarder has not taken the corresponding remedy, and still stressed that there is no problem with the German address. We send the forms required by the German logistics company to the customer and tell them how to send it back to the German logistics company. The goods were cleared the next day.

This matter is also to tell everyone how important it is to have "people" in Germany.

4. Why do I enter the EU VAT number (Germany) on the VIES website but can't find the company name and address?

Some customers have previously reported that when the freight forwarder inquires about their EU VAT number, the tax ID number found is valid, but the company name and address are not displayed. this is normal!

First of all, the VIES website is an electronic verification system, which is mainly used to check whether the EU VAT number in the EU countries is valid.

Secondly, it is clearly stated in the “Frequently Asked Questions” on the VIES official website that some countries are not allowed to display corporate information. This includes Germany.

Below is the information on the EU VAT number for my firm. My firm's business address is in Germany, but it does not display its name and address.

5. How can the UK's EORI (Customs) report customs declarations in Germany?

If you have already applied for an EORI number in the UK, you no longer need to apply for an EORI number in Germany. This number is for all EU countries.

If the goods want to use the British EORI to declare at the German customs. The first thing that needs to be done is to bind the UK EORI to the German EU VAT number, which can only be bound in the UK Customs. In other words, in which country the customs number is applied, the customs of the country in which country is required to be bound to the VAT tax number of other EU countries!

6. Is it possible to make a low declaration in Germany?

After a preliminary understanding, many customers will always ask us if they can report low or even false reports. What everyone needs to pay attention to here is that if you want to conduct cross-border trade in Germany, you must follow the German law. Germany's rigor is not only reflected in their industrial manufacturing, but also in tax laws.

For example (this example is provided by two German tax clerk who have many years of experience in the German tax office):

You may not think of a small Turkish Döner store in Germany. Pizza takeaways and Chinese restaurants have always been the subject of strict inspection by the German Taxation Office. One of them reviewed a pizza takeaway, because the turnover reported by the pizza shop and the business conditions seen in the store were far apart. Finally they found a way, that is, a few pizza takeaway boxes! They sorted out the bills for all the take-out boxes, calculated the total number of boxes bought in a year, and subtracted the boxes left over, and the rest was the actual number of pizzas sold. As a result, it can be imagined that the calculated number of remaining boxes will be much less. Not only need to pay the stolen tax, but also pay the corresponding late fees and high tax evasion fines.

7. Can the VAT declaration in Germany only be reported monthly?

German VAT is not only declared once a month to the tax bureau. It can also be reported quarterly (four times a year) and annual (one year in one year).

If the company's declared VAT for the entire year (12 months) is greater than 1000 Euros and less than 7,500 Euros, then the company can make quarterly VAT returns in the next year.

If the company only pays less than 1,000 euros VAT for the entire year (12 months), then the company only needs to issue an annual VAT declaration in the next year.

Please note that the newly registered company must declare for the first two years!

The tax bureau will decide whether it can make quarterly or annual declarations in the next year based on the tax of the company's previous year.

Whether it is a monthly declaration, a quarterly declaration or an annual declaration, the data needs to be compiled and sent to the tax office every month.

According to past data, 95% of China's cross-border e-commerce companies will have an annual VAT return of more than 7,500 euros. That is to say, most of them must be filed monthly.

8. The amount is relatively small, can not report? ? ?

It is necessary to give an example to you here.

At the beginning of the year, there was a customer B who had just transferred from the service provider. The reason for the change was that the service provider was not responsible, and each tax return was relatively late. After moving to our firm, we first applied for a 1/11 declaration for them so that they had enough time to pay the tax (this is especially beneficial for companies with long financial transfer periods). One month later, the application was rejected by the tax bureau because the tax evening newspapers in August and October 2017 were not even reported. Through communication with the customer, it was known that the service provider told them at the time that "the amount is relatively small, and it is not possible to report it." Even people who have only lived in Germany will not say this. Finally, we filed a complaint with the tax bureau for customer B. We hope that we can retain the 1/11 application and wait for nearly four weeks. We have obtained a new 1/11 declaration from the tax bureau.

Here you need to remind everyone: If there is sales last year, even if it is only 1 euro, you must declare and pay the corresponding taxes. Otherwise, the final result is to pay taxes and pay fines.

9. Do you know the 14th declaration of German tax?

Under normal circumstances, a company needs to perform 12 monthly VAT returns and 1 annual VAT return for each fiscal year. The so-called 14th declaration is the 1/11 declaration we often mentioned.

This declaration is generally carried out after the VAT declaration in December of each year (for newly established or newly registered companies, it is generally started to report directly to the current year).

The 1/11 declaration has two roles:

(1) To complete this declaration, you can directly have one month to complete the monthly tax declaration and tax payment.

For example: the company's January accounts, your company needs to complete the billing and reporting for January at the latest before February 10, and will pay the corresponding tax to the tax bureau before February 10. If you apply for the 1/11 declaration, your account for January can be postponed until March 10th to complete the declaration and pay the January tax. The advantage is that your company has a longer time to prepare VAT filing materials and pay VAT, and can avoid the late payment due to late filing or late payment of VAT.

 (2) Prepayment of taxes for the new year.

For example: Company A reported a total tax of 11,000 Euros in 2017 (12 months), then the prepaid tax for 2018 is 11000/11 equals 1000 Euros. This 1,000 Euro will be repaid with this prepaid tax at the time of tax declaration in December 2018. For example, the company is required to pay a tax of 2,000 euros in December 2018, but because it pays 1,000 euros in the 1/11 declaration in 2018, it only needs to pay 2000-1000 equals 1,000 euros in December 2018.

If Company A decides to go through the corporate liquidation procedure in June 2018, it will report normally from January to June. When the 2018 annual VAT declaration is made later, the prepaid tax of 1000 Euro will be returned here.

10. Have you checked the monthly tax bill?

When you pay VAT, please check if your tax bill data is consistent with the tax data mentioned by the service provider.

First, when everyone has an error, check that the data is responsible for yourself and others.

Second, this was discovered by the tax before the customer was recently queried. Due to the late declaration of individual service providers (which has entered the normal reporting period), the customer has to pay a fine, but did not inform the customer of this part of the fine, but directly said that they need to pay these taxes. Customers do not look at the tax bill, they will directly transfer the tax to the German tax office.

In this case, if it is because of the fines caused by the firm's responsibility, they are obliged to try to get the tax bureau to waive the fine through the appeal.

If the client fails to submit the tax file or pay the tax on time, the firm may also entrust the firm to file a complaint, but the firm generally charges a fee for the service.

11. Only a German Certified Tax Agent can provide tax advice?

The tax laws in Germany are complex. According to the German Certified Tax Agents Regulation, only German Certified Tax Agents have the right to provide tax advice to companies or individuals. In other words, only tax accountants can earn tax advice. Of course, at the same time, they also need to take risks for this part of the tax advice. Once there is a mistake in the tax advice provided by the tax accountant to the customer, resulting in the loss of the customer, these losses require their responsibility. This part is also mentioned in our firm's tax service contract. Therefore, when you are conducting tax consultation, you must look for a standardized firm. When signing a contract, you must also see if there are relevant provisions in the contract. If you don't have these, any losses due to tax advice can only be borne by yourself!

12. German tax return materials still need to be saved?

In Germany, many materials need to be preserved. For ordinary Chinese e-commerce, the materials that need to be saved are:

Monthly reimbursement materials, customs customs vouchers, tax returns, annual VAT statements.

All of the above materials must be kept for 10 years.

13. Is Amazon’s service charge refundable?

Many customers have asked why the tax refund can only be refunded to the customs tax, without refunding the VAT of the Amazon service fee.

Because Amazon's service fee does not include German VAT. According to the German tax law, the services provided by B2B, the service recipients in third countries (such as China, Switzerland, etc.), this service does not include German VAT.

14. Is Pan-EU really as perfect as Amazon introduced?

It’s a tax disaster just to analyze it from a tax perspective. Once opened, it will involve at least seven countries' tax obligations. Not only do you need to register for tax in these European countries, but you also need to fulfill the obligation of VAT filing. At the same time, it is also necessary to declare the amount of goods shipped within the EU (ZM-Meldung) and the monthly detailed information form of the goods in the EU (Intrastat).

Because of the multiple countries involved, even if the relevant tax filing agencies are found in each country, it is difficult to achieve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of various tax obligations.

We recommend: try not to open this service, you can consider using EFN, so that only in the country where the warehouse is taxed. Although EFN will bring higher transportation costs, it is still relatively cheap compared with the cost of tax registration in seven countries.