Take action now: Obligation to provide evidence for traders on online marketplaces

Why you should apply for and upload your certificate according to §22f UStG now

There are currently changes in tax law that affect your trade on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. Admittedly, it sounds boring, but in this case it should grab your attention:

To prevent this from happening to you, we will inform you in this blog post about what the changes are all about, which retailers are affected and how you can prevent your seller account from being blocked.

In brief: The legal situation

More and more foreign entrepreneurs are trading on online marketplaces and generating sales there. However, the corresponding VAT is often only partially paid or not paid at all in Germany, resulting in considerable losses for the tax authorities. In order to reduce the risk of tax losses, the legislator introduced new record-keeping regulations and liability rules on January 1, 2019:

According to Section 22f (1) sentence 1 UStG-E, the operators of electronic marketplaces are obliged to request proof from you as a seller that you are registered for VAT purposes in Germany.

Which retailers are affected?

The obligation to provide proof applies to all sellers who have to register for VAT in Germany. This usually applies to you if you fulfill one of the following three conditions:

1. You are a seller based in Germany.
2. The goods you sell are stored in Germany.
3. The goods you sell are stored in another EU country but are sold to private individuals in Germany. This condition only applies if your total German turnover across all sales channels exceeds €100,000.

Numerous marketplace operators have already reacted and informed their sellers of the new obligation to provide evidence. The deadline for submitting the certificate in accordance with Section 22f UStG has been set at October 1, 2019 in the majority of cases. In individual cases, however, you should check whether this date also applies to smaller marketplaces on which you sell and contact the operator directly if you have any questions.

Sitting out the problem is not a good option. Because:

The marketplace giants Amazon and eBay have officially announced that they will block the accounts of all sellers who do not upload their certificates on time.

So save yourself the additional bureaucratic effort and loss of sales and take action now!

Anyone who believes they still have enough time should bear the following in mind: Marketplace operators will have to check a number of certificates in the coming months. The number will even increase as the deadline approaches. It is therefore possible that your account will be blocked despite submitting it on time because the manual check takes so much time.
And the handling time at the tax offices is already around one month on average.

Our tip: Use the summer months to apply for and submit the certificate now.

How to request a §22f UStG certificate

You can request the tax certificate by calling or sending an email to your local German tax office. You can find the contact details quickly and easily via the portal of the Federal Central Tax Office.

Alternatively, you can fill out the following form and submit it to the tax authorities:

Once you have received your §22f UStG certificate from the tax office, you can upload it directly to the relevant marketplace in most cases. You can find out exactly how this works on the respective operator’s website. eBay and Amazon, for example, each have their own information page for retailers.

Before uploading, make sure that the details such as tax number, company name and address in your seller account match those in the tax certificate. This will save you any queries and a possible second application with changed data. You should also make sure that the form contains a stamp from the relevant tax office, otherwise the certificate may not be recognized.