At the end of December 2025, the EU Commission announced that it would be discussing export duties and tariff quotas for aluminium scrap. A concrete proposal is to be announced in the second quarter of 2026. Export duties are payable by the person identified as the declarant of the export declaration. As long as tariff quotas have sufficient capacity, export duties can be avoided.

The e-commerce business involving goods shipments from third countries has been booming for years and continues to grow steadily. Many non-EU suppliers take advantage of the high volume of consignments to engage in what can only be described as tax evasion. In response, both the EU and individual Member States have adopted measures in recent months to counter this trend. These regulations, however, affect all e-commerce businesses that deliver goods from third countries to customers in the EU – regardless of whether they are established, within or outside the EU.

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.