Sales tax identification number

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sales tax identification number (abbreviated: USt-IdNr. In Germany or UID in Austria ) is a clear identification of a legal entity that participates in sales tax goods or services in the European Union (EU).

The UK will be treated as an EU member until December 31, 2020 .

Goal and benefit

The sales tax identification number is used to process intra-community trade in goods and services for sales tax purposes. It is therefore required by every entrepreneur who takes part in the movement of goods and services between the member states within the territory of the European Union (up to December 31, 2020 including the United Kingdom , see above).

A delivery to another EU country is exempt from sales tax (tax-free intra - community delivery ) if the item of the delivery arrives in another EU country and the delivery is made to an entrepreneur in the sense of sales tax for his company. The entrepreneurial status of the service recipient can be checked with the help of the sales tax identification number. This country of destination principle means that taxation is shifted to the recipient country by way of intra-Community acquisition .

In the case of services (other services) to entrepreneurs in the EU, the use of a sales tax identification number by the recipient of the service, if other conditions are met, enables the place of taxation to be relocated to the member state of the EU that issued the sales tax identification number used by the recipient of the service. The recipient of the service has to pay tax on the service there by means of the so-called reverse charge procedure (in Germany: reversal of tax liability according to § 13b UStG ).

confirmation

The European Commission's VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) can check whether a VAT identification number is valid . If you have any doubts about the validity of a sales tax identification number, a qualified request must be sent to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) , which will inform you whether the sales tax identification number is valid and can be assigned to the specified company.

There is also the option of having multiple sales tax identification numbers confirmed in one request. However, it must be ensured that these offers come from private providers, some of whom cannot be clearly identified. The German case law has so far only had to decide cases for the protection of legitimate expectations in intra-Community deliveries where a confirmation from the Federal Central Tax Office was available.

Grant

Germany

In Germany, entrepreneurs are given a VAT ID no. issued on application by the Federal Central Tax Office. The application can also be submitted online, stating the tax number. For this, the responsible tax office must be specified.

The legal basis in Germany is regulated by Section 27a of the Sales Tax Act (UStG).

Austria

In Austria, according to Article 28 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (UStG 1994), the tax office automatically issues the UID to entrepreneurs who provide goods or other services there with the right to input tax deduction.

Structure of the identification number

Sales tax identification numbers always begin with a prefix consisting of two capital letters from the EU country code. This code is usually formed from the two-digit ISO-3166-Alpha-2 country code of the EU country in which the company is based. An exception to this is Greece, where the prefix EL is used, i.e. the ISO-639-1 code for the Greek language, instead of the ISO-3166-Alpha-2 country code for Greece, which is GR (see also below the Trivia section ).

This is followed by up to twelve alphanumeric characters, the validity of which is ensured by means of check digit procedures or another error detection procedure (e.g. the Danish, British or Portuguese UID).

The VAT ID no. a company based in Germany always starts with DE . Austrian UID always begin with the letter U after the AT prefix. This often leads to confusion, because even if every Austrian UID no. begins with ATU , the country code for Austria is AT and therefore has two digits.

The European Commission does not provide any binding information on the format of the VAT identification number, but provides a table as information. However, in 2008 the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance made available a list of construction rules for sales tax identification numbers corresponding to the requirements of the EU Commission.

ISO 3166 country code description Name in the country abbreviation
AT Austria AT U 99999999 Block with 9 characters, the first character of which after the prefix is ​​always a 'U'. Sales tax identification number, ATU number or UID number UID
BE Belgium BE0999999999 or BE9999999999 Block with 10 digits, old nine-digit numbers are supplemented by prefixing the digit 0. Numéro de TVA / BTW number / VAT number N ° TVA / BTW no. / VAT no.
BG Bulgaria BG999999999 or
BG9999999999 (DE) 		Block of 9 or 10 digits Danyk dobawena stoinost DDS
CY Cyprus CY99999999 L Block with 9 characters, the last position must be a letter. Foros prostithemenis axias FPA
CZ Czech Republic CZ99999999 or
CZ999999999 or
CZ9999999999 (DE) 		Block of either 8, 9 or 10 digits daňové identifikační číslo DIČ
DE Germany DE999999999 Block with 9 digits Sales tax identification number VAT ID no.
DK Denmark DK99999999 Block with 8 digits Moms registration number SE no.
EE Estonia EE999999999 Block with 9 digits Käibemaksukohustuslase registreerimisnumber KMKR no
GR Greece EL 999999999 Prefix from EL , the ISO 639-1 code for the Greek language, followed by a block with 9 digits, which is identical to the company's tax number , the Α.Φ.Μ. (AFM). If the tax number is older and not yet 9 digits long, leading zeros are inserted between EL and the tax number. The last digit is one in the Α.Φ.Μ. included check digit . - Note: Due to the discrepancy between the country code GR and the language code EL, online retailers can be found who incorrectly expect the prefix GR when checking the ID and regard correct IDs with the prefix EL as invalid. Αριθμός Μητρώου Φ.Π.Α. <none>
IT Spain ES X 9999999 X 9 character block. The first and last characters can be either numeric or alphanumeric, but they cannot both be numeric. Formed from "ES" followed by the CIF (Código de Identificación Fiscal) or, in the case of freelancers (Autónomos), the NIF (Número de Identidad Fiscal). Impuesto sobre el valor añadido Number IVA
FI Finland FI99999999 Block with 8 digits Y-tunnus ALV NRO
FR France FR XX 999999999 Block of 2 characters, which can be either numeric or alphanumeric, followed by a block of 9 digits TVA intracommunautaire ID. TVA
GB United Kingdom GB999999999 or
GB999999999999 or
GBGD999 or
GBHA999 (DE) 		Block with 9 or 12 digits or block with 5 characters

Annotation:

The UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, but will be treated as one member for VAT until December 31, 2020.

Value Added Tax Registration Number VAT Reg No.
Isle of Man GB Note: Isle of Man was never a member of the EU. Value Added Tax Registration Number VAT Reg No.
MR Croatia HR99999999999 Block with 11 digits, which is identical to the company's national identification number (Osobni identifikacijski broj, or OIB for short) PDV (Porez na dodanu vrijednost) identifikacijski broj PDV ID broj
HU Hungary HU99999999 Block with 8 digits Közösségi adószám
IE Ireland IE9 S 99999 L or
IE9999999 LI 		Block with 8 characters, the second digit can and the last digit must be a letter or block with 7 digits followed by a letter from A to W and a letter from A to I. Value added tax identification no. VAT-No
IT Italy IT99999999999 Block with 11 digits Numero Partita IVA (VAT number) P. IVA, Part. IVA
LT Lithuania LT999999999 or
LT999999999999 (DE) 		Block with 9 or 12 digits PVM mokėtojo kodas PVM MK
LU Luxembourg LU99999999 Block with 8 digits le numéro d'identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée IBLC No.
LV Latvia LV99999999999 Block with 11 digits Pievienotas vertibas nodoklis
MT Malta MT99999999 Block with 8 digits Value added tax
NL Netherlands NL999999999999 Block of 12 characters. BTW identification number BTW number
PL Poland PL9999999999 Block of 10 digits Numer Identyfikacji Podatkowej (Tax Identification Number) NIP
PT Portugal PT999999999 Block with 9 digits Numero de identificaçao fiscal NIPC
RO Romania RO999999999 Block with at least 2 and a maximum of 10 digits Cod de identificare fiscală CIF
SE Sweden SE999999999999 Block with 12 digits Moms registration number Moms No.
SI Slovenia SI99999999 Block with 8 digits Davčna številka ID št. za DDV
SK Slovakia SK9999999999 Block of 10 digits Identifikačné číslo pre daň z pridanej hodnoty IČ DPH
SM San Marino SM 999 or SM 99999 (examples) Inconsistent number of digits - Note: San Marino is not a member of the EU. codice operatore economico (cod.op.econ.) coe

VAT identification number in invoices and imprint

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

According to § 14 UStG, an invoice must contain either the tax number issued by the tax office to the supplier or the sales tax identification number issued by the Federal Central Tax Office . Specifying a sales tax identification number (if available) is often preferred because it offers fewer opportunities for abuse.

According to § 5 TMG , the sales tax identification number, if available, must be displayed in the imprint of a website .

Furthermore, an invoice in which an intra-community service is billed must contain both the sales tax identification number of the supplier and the recipient in accordance with Section 14a (1) sentence 1 UStG. Lack of a bill of this content, the lack intra-Community supply necessary accounting evidence ( § 17c UStDV ) for the use of the sales tax exemption (after 1 § 4. B) UStG ).

European identification numbers

EU VAT IdNrn are an exception: these are tax identification numbers with the letters EU begin and to not territory of the European Union based entrepreneurs will be awarded, as in the territory of the European Union tax liability solely other services electronically ( § 3a Abs. 5 S. 2 Nr. 3 UStG) to non-entrepreneurs based in the EU. The legal basis is the special regulation introduced by § 18 Paragraph 4c and 4d UStG on July 1, 2003, which in turn is based on European law requirements.

EU VAT numbers are only used between non-European companies and European non-companies; Therefore, they do not need to be validated by the BZSt or the MIAS, which is not even possible. These numbers are only valid in the EU (also in the UK until December 31, 2020 , see above).

Trivia

The exception described above that the EU code for Greece uses the ISO 639-1 code for the Greek language ( EL ) instead of the ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code for the country Greece ( GR ) has in the In the past, some merchandise management systems required the entry of Greek VAT ID no. not capture correctly. For example, Magento , Microsoft Dynamics NAV or SAP ERP were affected by the error .

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The abbreviation is inconsistent. As here: Sect. 6a.1 Para. 12 Sales tax application decree . Occasionally, the hyphen is omitted from the abbreviation. see. BeckOK, UStG, § 3a, Rn. 64.
  2. ↑ Identifies chain stores in the UK.
  3. ↑ Identifies public bodies (authorities) in Great Britain.
  4. ↑ Identifies healthcare facilities in the UK.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ admin: Preparations for Brexit - Federal Ministry of Finance - Topics. Accessed February 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) of the European Commission
  3. ↑ Confirmation page of the Federal Central Tax Office ; Retrieved November 10, 2013
  4. ↑ page for the confirmation of several sales tax identification numbers ; Retrieved November 10, 2013
  5. ↑ cf. Bundesfinanzhof, judgment of 11.8.2011, file number VR 3/10 . In: juris.bundesfinanzhof.de, RdNr. 1; accessed December 22, 2013; FG Hamburg, judgment of February 28, 2012, file number 5 K 10/10. In: BeckRS 2012, 95066.
  6. ↑ cf. Section 2 (1) sentence 1 UStG
  7. ↑ Information on the VAT ID no. at the Federal Central Tax Office
  8. ↑ Form management system of the Federal Finance Administration
  9. ↑ Melhardt / Tumpel, Value Added Tax Act, Art 28 margin no.3.
  10. ↑ a b c d e Information on the construction rules for the VAT identification number (UID) (PDF; 51 kB) Website of the Federal Ministry of Finance (Austria), as of April 2013, accessed on August 9, 2013.
  11. ↑ The calculation of the check digit of the VAT ID no. for different countries z. B. explained here .
  12. ↑ FAQ (English)
  13. ↑ a b c Structure of the sales tax identification number in the EU member states , Federal Central Tax Office (Germany)
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g Sales tax and sales tax from all over the world , on die-mehrwertsteuer.de
  15. ↑ ec.europa.eu: Πίνακας δομής των αριθμών μητρώου ΦΠΑ
  16. ^ Federal Ministry of Finance: BMF letter. In: Federal Ministry of Finance. BMF, November 22, 2019, accessed on January 9, 2020 (German).
  17. ↑ VAT , on ec.europa.eu, accessed on August 4, 2020
  18. ↑ Publications Office Rules for Publication
  19. ↑ Magento: Small bug fix for Greece
  20. ↑ MSDynamics.de In our database the country code for Greece is "GR"
  21. ↑ Enter a valid partner VAT number. for Greece one