German Ecommerce Update – Withdraw of F22 Tax Certificate Requirement
F22 impedes the free access of EU businesses to the single market, claims EU Commission
Back in early 2019, a new requirement for non-EU sellers using online marketplaces was introduced. This made online marketplaces liable for unpaid VAT by third-party merchants on their platforms.
Non-EU sellers were obliged to register and obtain a new “F22” tax certificate. This certificate confirmed that the online seller is up-to-date with their German VAT compliance. Originally, this new requirement was set to be introduced for non-EU sellers from 1st March 2019 and for EU sellers from 1st October 2019.
However, due to the large number of applications that the German tax authorities received, an extension to the 15 April 2019 was granted to non-EU sellers. On 10th October 2019, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Germany for the withdrawal of the 2019 requirement for both EU and non-EU sellers on online marketplaces to obtain a F22 German VAT Certificate.
The Commission is of the opinion that this violates EU law and it impedes the free access of EU businesses to the free market. The Commission also claims that this is inefficient and is not in line with the digital strategy agreed between the Member States.
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