Hey everyone,
we have changed our payment service provider for single orders.
This might sound like a “bookkeeping issue” – and it is, a little bit 🙂
But for many of you, it should make purchasing and billing easier.
What exactly is changing?
Effective immediately, all invoices for single orders will be issued directly by our company, tecease GmbH.
This means:
- You will receive a German invoice
- The invoice will include German VAT – if applicable
- (Bank) transfers will be processed significantly faster (and go to a German account)
- Business customers outside Germany can provide their VAT ID during purchase
- Private customers outside Germany will be charged with the VAT of their destination country
Why did we change this?
Previously, we used “FastSpring” for single orders. FastSpring sold the license on our behalf, created the invoice, and handled many tax-related matters.
This was very convenient for us, as the correct processing of VAT for sales to private individuals and business customers in Germany, the EU, and third countries can become quite complex.
However, for some business customers, it was less convenient because the invoice came from the USA and bank transfers had to be made to a British account. This repeatedly led to queries – which is completely understandable.
So now it’s the other way around:
It’s easier for you.
It’s a bit more complicated for us.
But that’s how it should be, right? 🙂
Bank transfer: significantly faster
There’s also a significant improvement for bank transfers.
Transfers now go to a German account instead of the UK. This allows us to process payments much faster.
For real-time transfers, processing during business days now takes a maximum of 24 hours in our tests, and often even within 1-2 hours.
Previously, it could sometimes take 5 business days or longer for a transfer to be processed. From our perspective, that was no longer acceptable.
What applies to private and business customers outside Germany?
Business customers outside Germany can provide their VAT ID during purchase.
The invoice will then be correctly issued net, i.e., without German VAT, provided the conditions for this are met.
Private customers outside Germany pay the VAT rate of their respective destination country.
This is legally required and will now be correctly accounted for directly in the purchase process.
Deep Dive: Why is all this so complex?
For anyone interested in accounting and taxes, here’s a little background.
We sell to:
- Private individuals in Germany
- Business customers in Germany
- Private individuals in the EU
- Business customers in the EU
- Customers in non-EU countries (Hello Switzerland! … and others :D)
And almost every one of these constellations has different rules.
- For German customers – whether private or business – we charge 19% VAT.
- For business customers within the EU, VAT is generally not charged. For this, the VAT ID must be verified, and the invoice must include the appropriate notes on the reverse-charge procedure.
- For business customers from “non-EU countries” (which include Switzerland, among others), different requirements apply to invoice texts and tax treatment.
- Private customers outside Germany, in turn, must be billed with the VAT rate of their respective destination country, for example, 20% in Austria, 21% in the Netherlands, or 27% in Hungary.
And of course, it doesn’t end there.
All of this must then also be reported correctly:
- German VAT to the tax office
- Transactions with EU business customers via the “Recapitulative Statement”
- Private transactions within the EU via the “One-Stop-Shop procedure”
Quite wild.
That’s precisely why we chose the FastSpring solution in the past: FastSpring charged a fair fee for processing but handled the tax issues cleanly.
The disadvantage was: the invoices came from the USA. And that was unnecessarily complicated for many German business customers.
With the new solution, invoices are now simpler for you and better suited for accounting.
Best regards,
Your stromlaufplan.de Team
