Yes and no – and trust us, we understand how this feels confusing. First things first. When you register at town hall upon moving to Germany the German “Bundeszentralamt für Steuern” or “BZSt”, essentially the Federal Office for fiscal Affairs, will automatically issue you a tax ID or “Steueridentifikationsnummer” within a few days.
This is a once in a lifetime 11 digits number structured like this:
ww xxx yyy zzz.
It is your unique identifier in the German tax system and will never change again.
For those of you under SOFA: since you do not need to register at town hall you need to petition for this ID separately – it will not be issued automatically.
Now, once you file your returns with the tax office that is handling your case you will receive an additional number – the so called tax number or Steuernummer. It is a 9 – 11 digits long number, always separated at least by one slash (/).
Like the ID it is also a unique identifier, but only for a particular tax office and it can change depending on your residence, your filing status, your income, the taxes you are filing (trade, VAT…).
Then, there is a third number. The so-called “Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer“ or USt-ID. It is the German VAT identification number. It is structured like this
DE……..
This number uniquely marks your business inside the European market and is used for tracking the sale of goods inside (and outside) the EU. This is because the sale of goods in- and outside of Europe can at times be VAT-free, so it is important to stay on top of them.
To sum it up. A tax ID is the overall identifier in the German tax system that will not change ever. A tax number is your processing identification tag for your tax office, and you may see several of them over the course of your German tax career. A VAT-ID is your marker for the VAT system when you are selling goods. All of those numbers will be issued separately upon registering for tax purposes or filing a return. The process is slightly different for those with NATO.
We hope this sheds some light on this subject. Please let the taxperts know if you need help getting tax-registered or trying to get a VAT-ID.
