Germany Value Added Tax (Umsatzsteuer / Mehrwertsteuer)
Germany Value Added Tax (Umsatzsteuer / Mehrwertsteuer) is 19 percent, in force since 1 Jan 2007. It was 16 percent before that. Last checked against the official source on 11 Sep 2026.
German standard rate of Umsatzsteuer under Section 12(1) UStG.
| Current value | 19 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2007-01-01 |
| Official source | Umsatzsteuergesetz (UStG) Section 12(1): 'Die Steuer betraegt fuer jeden steuerpflichtigen Umsatz 19 Prozent der Bemessungsgrundlage'; rate set by Haushaltsbegleitgesetz 2006 of 29 June 2006 (BGBl. I S. 1402), consolidated text at gesetze-im-internet.de (BMJ/juris) |
| Last verified | 2026-09-11 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Standard rate 19% (Regelsteuersatz), unchanged since 1 January 2007. A reduced rate of 7% (ermaessigter Steuersatz, Section 12(2) UStG) applies to the goods in Anlage 2 UStG (most foodstuffs, books, newspapers, plants), local public passenger transport, short-term accommodation, admissions to theatres/concerts/museums, dental-technician work, copyright licensing and certain charitable supplies. IMPORTANT 2026 CHANGE CONFIRMED IN THE STATUTE TEXT: restaurant and catering services (Restaurant- und Verpflegungsdienstleistungen) were moved permanently to the 7% reduced rate with effect from 1 January 2026, with the express exception of beverages (Abgabe von Getraenken), which remain at 19%. A 0% rate (Section 12(3) UStG) applies to the supply and installation of photovoltaic modules and storage up to 30 kW (peak) on or near residential buildings and buildings used for public/community purposes. Germany also operates the special agricultural flat-rate scheme (Section 24 UStG). VAT is a federal tax; there are no sub-national VAT rates, but note the special territorial exclusions of Buesingen am Hochrhein and Helgoland, which lie outside the EU VAT territory and where German VAT is not levied. The 16%/5% COVID reduction applied only from 1 July to 31 December 2020 and has long expired. Access: gesetze-im-internet.de (the official BMJ consolidated-law portal) served the full text cleanly; the Bundesfinanzministerium law portal esth.bundesfinanzministerium.de is behind a Radware bot-protection wall and returned a JS challenge shell rather than content. VAT BANDS (added 2026-07-27): the country's other statutory bands are now served as structured data on this series and can be priced through /v1/answers/vat by passing the band key. We publish each band and the scope the instrument itself states; we do NOT classify a particular supply into a band, which is a legal determination.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-01 | 16 | Zweites Corona-Steuerhilfegesetz of 29 June 2020 (BGBl. I… |
| 1998-04-01 | 16 | Gesetz zur Finanzierung eines zusaetzlichen… |
| 1993-01-01 | 15 | Steueraenderungsgesetz 1992 of 25 February 1992 (BGBl. I S… |
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/vat
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/de/vatOther Germany series: Policy Rate (ECB Deposit Facility Rate) · Statutory Minimum Wage (Gesetzlicher Mindestlohn) · Public Holidays · Consumer Price Inflation (Verbraucherpreisindex, year-on-year) · Corporate Income Tax (Koerperschaftsteuer) · Withholding tax rates · Personal Income Tax (Einkommensteuer) · Statutory social-insurance contributions (Sozialversicherungsbeiträge) · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive) · Statutory default interest (gesetzlicher Verzugszinssatz) · VAT registration threshold (Kleinunternehmerregelung)
The same figure elsewhere: Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · all 34