Small business procurement of goods from abroad
January 30, 2022 | 60,00 EUR | answered by Steuerberater Knut Christiansen
Dear Sir or Madam,
I run a small business on the side and sell goods online. The business is registered, I use the small business regulation according to § 19, have a tax number, and a VAT ID. Now I want to source some goods from abroad, but I only find conflicting information regarding taxation (it's only about purchasing goods, selling exclusively in Germany). Could you please help me with the following cases:
1. Sourcing goods from EU countries (Sweden). The seller does not charge VAT, I purchase the goods at the net price.
2. Sourcing goods from a third country (China).
3. The company is based in China but has a warehouse in Germany from which they would ship the goods to me. Everything is already customs cleared and taxed.
Could you please tell me for each case:
a) Do I have to pay import VAT? I keep reading about a threshold (€12,500)?
b) What is the Recapitulative Statement?
c) If it needs to be taxed, is it enough to include the information in the annual tax return?
Thank you for your help.
Good morning and thank you for using frag-einen.com!
I would like to provide you with the following information in response to your questions.
In principle, as a small entrepreneur according to § 1a para. 3 UStG, there is no intra-Community acquisition (Case 1) if you do not use your VAT ID and the acquisition threshold does not exceed 12,500 EUR per year. In this case, the Swedish merchant must charge Swedish VAT and you do not need to take any further action.
However, if you use the VAT ID number provided to you, an application for acquisition taxation according to § 1a para. 4 UStG is applicable. In this case, even if you stay below 12,500 EUR, you must tax the acquisition as intra-Community and declare and pay the German VAT. This procedure also binds you for 2 calendar years, so that you would have to treat every acquisition in the next two years as an intra-Community acquisition. As a small entrepreneur, you are not required to submit a summary report.
The intra-Community acquisition must be reported in the respective quarter if your basic filing period has been set quarterly (please coordinate with the tax office). Pre-registration is only required for small entrepreneurs if there was an intra-Community acquisition.
If you are importing goods from a third country, the import VAT and customs clearance depend on the terms of delivery. In general, the amount of import VAT would need to be declared and paid by you at the time of import. If the goods come from a domestic warehouse, you will typically receive an invoice with German VAT from the supplier. In this case, you do not need to pay any further taxes.
I hope I have answered your questions. Please feel free to reach out if anything is still unclear.
Best regards,
Knut Christiansen
Tax consultant
