Value Added Tax – tax offices for companies based abroad

If a foreign company does business in Germany, the turnover is subject to VAT taxation in Germany in just the same way as for domestic companies. Companies based abroad are companies which do not have a domicile, head office or branch office in Germany (Art. 13b para. 4 Value Added Tax Act – UStG). In principle, a foreign company which does not have a domicile in Germany must report sales which are subject to tax in Germany to the German tax authority, must pay such tax, and must submit a tax declaration. For this purpose, the company must register for VAT purposes with the responsible tax office. The following tax offices in Germany are responsible, as set out in Art. 21 Fiscal Code (AO) para. 1 sentence 2, depending on the country in which the respective company is domiciled:

If you have not found a Tax Office responsible for your country, please contact

Finanzamt Berlin Neukölln; Thiemannstr. 1; 12059 Berlin;
Tel.: 030/902416-0, Fax: 030/902416-900.

The addresses of the individual Tax Offices are given here as a pdf file, or you can obtain them at the website of the Central Tax Office www.bzst.de via the search function.

For further information, please contact the responsible Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Despite careful checking, we can accept no warranty for the correctness of the data. In case of doubt, please contact the responsible Tax Office.

Status: August 2010