Consumer sales from foreign websites
Consumer sales from foreign websites
Foreign businesses providing electronic services or downloads to private, non-
business consumers in Germany from outside the EU must register for VAT in
an EU state of their choice. VAT is to be charged as though the service had been
performed from that state and must be accounted for accordingly. Luxembourg
currently has the lowest standard rate of VAT at 15%. The German rate of 19%
will probably make it unattractive to foreign businesses to register in Germany,
but if they do, they will have to abide by the German requirement to keep
records in support of the VAT returns filed. These include obligations to submit
the records in softcopy to the Central Tax Office on demand and to retain them
in hard and softcopy for ten years.
EU Forecast
euf:ba18e:53/nws-01