UVA Filing Checklist: What German
Businesses Need Before the 10th

Why the 10th Always Feels Sudden

The UVA filing window — 10 days from the end of your reporting period to the submission deadline — is not the problem. Ten days is enough time to verify data and press submit. What makes it feel tight is that the data isn't ready when the window opens.

Under §18 of the German VAT Act (Umsatzsteuergesetz — UStG), every VAT-registered business must submit a Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung (VAT pre-registration (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung — UVA)) by the 10th day after the end of each reporting period. For monthly filers, January's UVA is due February 10. For quarterly filers, Q1 (January–March) is due April 10. If the 10th falls on a weekend or public holiday (Feiertag), the deadline shifts to the next business day.

The problem most businesses face isn't forgetting the 10th — it's discovering on the 9th that they haven't gathered all their supplier invoices, haven't extracted the net amounts and VAT rates, and haven't verified that the numbers add up. They then spend the evening of the 9th rushing through data entry, which is exactly when the most expensive UVA data entry mistakes happen.

Filing a UVA under time pressure isn't faster filing — it's faster-error filing. And the Finanzamt corrects errors at its own pace, not yours.

First: Know Which Filing Schedule Applies to You

Before building your preparation timeline, confirm your filing frequency. The Finanzamt sets this based on your previous calendar year's VAT liability:

New businesses (Neugründung) are typically required to file monthly for their first two calendar years, regardless of projected turnover. However, this rule has been suspended for the tax periods 2021–2026 as an administrative relief measure. For new businesses during this window, the frequency is based on your projected VAT for the current year, using the same thresholds as above.

The 8-Day UVA Preparation Countdown

This timeline assumes the standard 10-day window (no Dauerfristverlängerung). If you have the permanent extension, shift each date forward by roughly one month — but keep the same spacing between steps.

Day 0: End of Reporting Period — Close the Books

The last day of the month (or quarter) is when your reporting period ends. On this day, or the next business day, you should stop booking new transactions for the closed period. Any invoice received after this point — even if dated within the period — goes into the next period if you haven't posted it yet. This cutoff discipline prevents the most common UVA error: scrambling to find invoices dated within the period that you forgot to post.

Action items:

• Run a report from your accounting software showing all booked transactions for the period
• Flag any missing supplier invoices (Eingangsrechnungen) that you know arrived but haven't been posted
• If you use Istbesteuerung (cash-basis VAT), run a bank statement report to capture any payments received or made in the period that affect VAT

Day 1–3: Gather and Extract Invoice Data

This is the step that consumes the most time — and the step most businesses start too late. You need the key fields from every invoice: Nettobetrag (net amount), Steuersatz (VAT rate), Steuerbetrag (VAT amount), and — for EU cross-border transactions — the supplier's USt-IdNr (VAT identification number).

If you're doing this manually, budget at least one working day for every 30–40 invoices. At 50 invoices, that's a day and a half of pure data entry — not including verification. The alternative is to use automated extraction to pull data from all invoices into a single structured spreadsheet in minutes. The extraction tool reads each invoice and outputs the fields you specify — Nettobetrag, Vorsteuerbetrag, USt-Satz, Rechnungsdatum — into columns, with one row per invoice.

Action items:

• Collect every Eingangsrechnung (incoming invoice) and Ausgangsrechnung (outgoing invoice) for the period — PDFs, scanned images, and e-invoices (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD)
• For each invoice, extract: net amount by tax rate, VAT amount, invoice date, supplier name (and USt-IdNr if applicable)
• Flag invoices from EU suppliers with no VAT charge — these are your §13b reverse-charge candidates that need separate ZM reporting

Day 4–5: Verify the Numbers

Before posting anything to your accounting software, verify that the arithmetic holds: Net + VAT = Gross for every invoice. A single invoice where this doesn't add up means the extraction missed something — the VAT rate is wrong, a line item was overlooked, or the scanned image was unclear. Catch it here, not after filing.

Also verify that the correct Steuerschlüssel (tax key) maps to each invoice. The most common mappings for German businesses:

• 3 — Umsatzsteuer 19% (output VAT, standard rate)
• 2 — Umsatzsteuer 7% (output VAT, reduced rate)
• 9 — Vorsteuer 19% (input VAT, standard rate)
• 8 — Vorsteuer 7% (input VAT, reduced rate)
• 91/94 — §13b reverse-charge (tax-neutral in UVA, reportable in ZM)

If your Steuerberater handles the UVA filing, now is when you send them the verified data. Don't send a folder of PDFs — send a structured spreadsheet with every invoice's fields in columns, plus your Steuerschlüssel assignments. Your Steuerberater will verify the tax treatment and import the data into DATEV. This saves their team hours of re-keying (which they bill to you) and ensures the data they're working with is the same data you verified.

Day 6–7: Cross-Check Special Cases

This step covers the exceptions that standard extraction and verification might miss:

• Invoices dated at month-end but received after the cutoff — these belong in the period of the invoice date under Sollbesteuerung, even if you haven't posted them yet
• Innergemeinschaftliche Erwerbe (intra-community acquisitions) — purchases from other EU countries. The VAT is calculated but not charged by the supplier. You must report both the acquisition and the corresponding input VAT in the UVA, making it tax-neutral
• Unentgeltliche Wertabgaben (deemed supplies) — goods or services you took from the business for private use, which are subject to VAT under §3(1b) UStG
• Any corrections to previous periods' UVAs that affect the current period's net position

Day 8: Submit via ELSTER

Do not wait until Day 10. ELSTER (the official electronic tax filing platform) can experience downtime, and the Finanzamt's servers process a high volume of submissions on the 10th. Filing on Day 8 or 9 gives you a buffer if anything goes wrong.

The ELSTER submission path:

1. Log in to elster.de using your electronic certificate (Zertifikat)
2. Navigate to "Formulare" → "Umsatzsteuer" → "Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung"
3. Select the correct reporting period (Zeitraum)
4. Enter your Steuernummer (tax number) and company details
5. Fill in the applicable UVA lines based on your verified data
6. Review the calculated tax liability (Zahllast) or refund (Erstattung)
7. Submit (Übermitteln)

After submission, ELSTER provides a confirmation (Protokoll) with a submission ID. Save this — it's your proof of timely filing. If the Finanzamt later claims you filed late, this Protokoll's timestamp is your defense.

If your Steuerberater files on your behalf: Confirm with them by Day 7 that they have everything they need. Steuerberater handle dozens of clients' UVAs simultaneously. Yours isn't the only one due on the 10th. A gentle check-in on Day 6 or 7 ensures you're in their submission queue, not in their "I'll get to it" pile.

Adding the Dauerfristverlängerung to Your Calendar

If you have the permanent extension (Dauerfristverlängerung), your UVA deadline shifts by one month — but it comes with a separate payment obligation that has its own deadline: February 10 for the Sondervorauszahlung.

The Dauerfristverlängerung (permanent filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung)) under §18(6) UStG extends your UVA deadline by exactly one month. Monthly filers: January's UVA is now due March 10 (not February 10). Quarterly filers: Q1 is due May 10 (not April 10).

The Sondervorauszahlung (special advance payment (Sondervorauszahlung)) is the price of this extension: you must pay 1/11 of your previous year's VAT liability to the Finanzamt by February 10. This is not optional — it's the legal condition for the extension to remain valid.

The Sondervorauszahlung is credited against your annual VAT liability when you file the Umsatzsteuererklärung. It's not an extra cost; it's an early payment. But if you forget to make it, the Finanzamt can revoke the Dauerfristverlängerung retroactively — meaning all UVAs you filed under the extended deadline become late filings, each subject to the 10% late-filing surcharge (Verspätungszuschlag under §152 AO).

Your Sondervorauszahlung checklist:

• Calculate: previous year's total VAT liability ÷ 11 (rounded down to the nearest euro)
• Set up the bank transfer with the reference: your Steuernummer + "Sondervorauszahlung USt [year]"
• Schedule the transfer for February 1–5 — don't wait until the 10th
• If you file quarterly, you don't need a Sondervorauszahlung — but you must submit a zero return (Nullmeldung) by February 10 confirming your quarterly filing status

Don't Forget: The ZM Deadline Is the 25th

The UVA and the ZM are separate filings with separate deadlines. The UVA is due on the 10th. The ZM (Zusammenfassende Meldung) — the recapitulative statement for EU cross-border transactions — is due on the 25th of the following month under §18a UStG.

The ZM reports your intra-community supplies (innergemeinschaftliche Lieferungen) and certain services to other EU member states. It's a separate electronic filing through the BZSt (Federal Central Tax Office) portal, not through ELSTER. The ZM lists each EU customer's USt-IdNr and the total value of supplies to them during the reporting period.

The ZM filing frequency mirrors your UVA frequency in most cases: monthly if your EU supplies exceed €50,000 per quarter, quarterly otherwise, and annually if your EU supplies are minimal (under certain thresholds). The key pitfall: the Dauerfristverlängerung that extends your UVA deadline does not extend your ZM deadline. The ZM is always due by the 25th, extension or no extension.

What Happens After the Monthly Filings: The Annual Reconciliation

The UVAs you file throughout the year aren't final. They're advance payments. The annual VAT return (Umsatzsteuererklärung), due by July 31 of the following year (extended to the end of February of the year after that if filed through a Steuerberater), reconciles all 12 monthly or 4 quarterly UVAs against your actual annual figures.

If your cumulative UVA payments exceeded your actual annual VAT liability, you get a refund. If they fell short, you pay the difference. This is also the filing where corrections to individual UVAs are aggregated and netted. For this reason, every UVA you file during the year should be accurate — errors in individual UVAs compound into a more complex annual reconciliation.

Quarterly Checkpoints for Monthly Filers

Monthly filers handle 12 UVAs per year. Without quarterly checkpoints to review the cumulative position, you can drift into a significant overpayment or underpayment without noticing until the annual reconciliation.

At the end of each quarter, pull a cumulative summary:

• Total Umsatzsteuer (output VAT) collected YTD
• Total Vorsteuer (input VAT) paid YTD
• Net position: cumulative paid-in or refunded YTD
• Compare this to the same quarter last year — significant deviations (over 20%) should be investigated before you file the next UVA

This quarterly review takes 30 minutes and prevents you from discovering a €5,000 discrepancy at the annual reconciliation that could have been caught in March.

FAQ

What if my accountant doesn't get me the data in time for the 10th?

Legally, the filing obligation is yours, not your Steuerberater's. If your Steuerberater misses the deadline, the Finanzamt holds you responsible. If this is a recurring issue, consider applying for the Dauerfristverlängerung, which gives your Steuerberater an extra month. Alternatively, take control of the data extraction step yourself — provide your Steuerberater with a pre-structured spreadsheet of invoice fields rather than a folder of PDFs, cutting their processing time significantly.

Can I submit the UVA without the Sondervorauszahlung if I have the Dauerfristverlängerung?

You can submit it, but the Finanzamt may reject the extension if the Sondervorauszahlung hasn't been received by February 10. If the extension is revoked, your UVA becomes late. Pay the Sondervorauszahlung first — it's the gate that unlocks the extended deadline.

What happens on the 10th if I'm waiting for one supplier's invoice?

File the UVA with the data you have. You can file a corrected UVA (Berichtigte Voranmeldung) later when the missing invoice arrives. A timely-filed UVA with one missing invoice is a minor correction. An untimely-filed UVA is a penalty event. The Finanzamt prefers the first scenario. Include a note for your Steuerberater about which invoice is pending so they can track the correction.

Do I need a separate calendar entry for the ZM deadline?

Yes. The UVA (10th) and ZM (25th) are different filings, different portals (ELSTER vs BZSt), different deadlines. Set a recurring calendar entry for both. The ZM only applies if you have EU cross-border supplies, but if you do, a missed ZM is a separate compliance failure from a missed UVA.