Revocation of the waiver of the small-business VAT scheme (Germany)
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This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
The letter to the German tax office (Finanzamt) that returns a business to the small-business scheme of § 19 of the German VAT Act (UStG) after it had waived the scheme and charged VAT. The waiver binds for at least five calendar years and can then be revoked only from the start of a later calendar year. The letter names the year of the waiver and the year from which the scheme should apply again, and states that turnover stays within the €25,000 and €100,000 limits. Germany has no ‘VAT deregistration’: this is the route. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Tax office (Finanzamt)
- Tax office's address
- City
- Date
- Year from which the small-business scheme should apply again
- Tax number (Steuernummer)
- Year from which the waiver applied
- Total turnover this year (expected, €)
- Total turnover in the year the revocation takes effect (expected, €)
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- When can the waiver of the German small-business VAT scheme be revoked?
- At the earliest after the five calendar years the waiver binds, and only from the start of a calendar year (§ 19(3) UStG). Whether, since the 2025 reform, a revocation can still be declared afterwards for a year that has already begun is not settled. If the scheme should apply again from 1 January, file the revocation with the tax office by the December before at the latest — by letter or through Mein ELSTER as a ‘Sonstige Nachricht an das Finanzamt’.
- What turnover limits apply to the German small-business VAT scheme since 2025?
- Total turnover must not have exceeded €25,000 in the previous calendar year and must not exceed €100,000 in the current one (§ 19(1) UStG). The €100,000 is a hard limit: once it is crossed during the year, VAT is due from the very sale that crosses it. If the limits are not met, standard VAT applies despite the revocation.
- What changes on invoices and input VAT after revoking the German VAT waiver?
- From the year the revocation applies, your sales are exempt: invoices no longer show VAT and carry a note on the small-business exemption, and VAT on purchases can no longer be deducted. If assets were bought with input VAT deducted in earlier years, part of that VAT may have to be repaid (§ 15a UStG).
- Can this letter deregister a German business from VAT?
- Germany has no VAT deregistration as such. A business that carries on trading is freed from VAT only through the small-business scheme, which is what this revocation is for. Giving up the activity altogether means telling the tax office (§ 138 AO) for a liberal profession, or deregistering a trade with the municipality on the official form. The EU-wide small-business scheme (§ 19a UStG) runs through the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) instead.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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