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How to upload your German Tax Certificate

All sellers with a VAT obligation in Germany must obtain and provide AbeBooks with a copy of their German Tax Certificate. Sellers who ship goods to customers in Germany but are not obligated to be tax registered in Germany are required to submit a declaration to AbeBooks. More information can be found here.

To submit a copy of your German Tax Certificate directly through your seller account:

1. Sign onto your AbeBooks account using your email address and password
2. Click Required: Update your account information in the To-Do List of your Members Menu
3. Click Selling in Germany on the Manage my account
4. Review the information on the Selling into Germany page and Select to upload a Tax Certificate
5. Click [Start now]. You will be re-directed to Amazon’s website.
6. On the Tax Information Interview page, fill out all the fields accurately and click Submit
7. On the Client Dashboard click Select File
8. Once selected, the file name will populate under ‘Tax Certificate’ and you can click Upload Documents
9. Click Exit if you are satisfied with the information provided. You will be directed back to AbeBooks

The status on the next page will show ‘Pending’ while your information is reviewed which may take up to 3~5 business days. If your tax certificate is accepted or rejected, you will receive a notification in your Members Menu.

File requirements

Please ensure that all pages of your Tax Certificate are clearly legible and included in one single file attachment to a maximum file size of 10MB. If your Tax Certificate is more than one page, it must be submitted as a single file attachment. PDF file types are ideal for multi-page documents.

Accepted file formats

We accept files in the format of pdf, jpeg, doc, docx, png, tiff, gif and bmp. Maximum file size of 10MB

Common rejection reasons

  • Name entered on tax information page is not the legal name used for tax purposes
  • Address entered on tax information page is not the address used for tax reporting purposes
  • Spelling errors in either name or address information provided
  • Incorrect format of Tax ID (Steuernummer) provided. Please ensure to enter the slashes “/” in the correct location.
  • The VAT number provided did not include the country indicator. Format should be DE123456789
  • Tax Certificate uploaded is not legible (too blurry or too dark or content outside the page)
  • Tax Certificate uploaded is expired