For coin traders, the Federal Ministry of Finance circular dated 18 December 2025 and the associated repeal of the circular dated 7 January 2005 bring far-reaching changes. The Ministry restricts the application of the reduced VAT rate, in particular, to base metal coins and legal tender coins made of precious metals. The laborious case-by-case assessment of whether a coin qualifies as a collector’s item is becoming increasingly important.

By 2 February 2026, platform operators must again submit a report to the German Federal Central Tax Office in accordance with the Platform Tax Transparency Act (PStTG). Although some of the technical conditions have changed compared to previous reports, the main difficulties in the preparation and submission of reports remain.

On 1 January 2026, the new sec. 21b of the German VAT Act entered into force. It regulates where import VAT is incurred when using the centralised clearance for imports. In this case, customs duties and import VAT are often incurred in different Member States. Under certain circumstances, an additional VAT return for import VAT may be required in addition to the customs declaration.