In late 2018 Germany passed a new law concerning online trade coming into effect on January 1st, 2019. As a consequence, online sellers on Amazon, eBay, or other online trading platforms will have to comply with new Value Added Tax (VAT) regulations in Germany. Sellers need a tax-registration and a German tax-ID. Furthermore they have to apply for a tax-certificate and to forward it before beeing able to continue sellling on Amazon & Ebay. One of the reasons for this measure is the still high number of online trades who didn’t fulfill their liabilities concerning the German VAT. Another purpose might be collecting data on the scale of online trade as a whole. This would also explain why the recent law addresses all online traders alike, regardless if they are subject to VAT taxation or not.

1. Registration for VAT and the tax certificate

Anyway, the step that has been taken to enforce the application of the new regulation is quite drastic, since it addresses the providers of the online marketplaces to be responsible for any violation by their business sellers. For obvious reasons, Amazon, eBay, and other providers are not going to risk such a consequence. They informed the online vendors and made it clear that a continuation of their trade will only be possible, if they comply with the new regulations.

Thus, online sellers are obliged to register for VAT if they meet at least one of the 3 conditions listed below: