Patreon Taxes in Germany 2026: VAT, Fees and Income Tax

Your Patreon payouts are not subject to German VAT. Under § 3(11a) UStG, Patreon counts as the supplier to your members and charges and remits their VAT itself; your own supply to the US company Patreon, Inc. takes place in the US (§ 3a(2) UStG) and is not taxable in Germany. The payouts do not count towards the €25,000 small business limit (§ 19(2) UStG), but they are still subject to German income tax.

Who supplies whom on Patreon

Your members pay Patreon. Patreon keeps its fees and pays out the rest to you. For VAT purposes, this creates two separate supplies:

1. You supply your content to the platform.

2. Patreon supplies the content to your members.

This chain follows from § 3(11a) UStG. A platform that takes part in a supply through a portal and sets the general terms is treated as if it supplied in its own name. The Court of Justice of the EU confirmed the underlying EU rule on 28 February 2023 in the OnlyFans case (C-695/20, Fenix International). The background is explained in OnlyFans taxes in Germany.

Patreon applies this in practice. According to its help centre, all creators contract with Patreon, Inc., a US company, and all payments come from that company. Patreon charges VAT on member payments in its own name and remits it to the countries where members are based. For members in Germany, that is 19%. You do not charge your members VAT.

Your supply to Patreon is a supply to a business. The place of supply is where the recipient is established, which is the US. The supply is therefore not taxable in Germany. "Not taxable" (nicht steuerbar) is more than "exempt": the supply falls outside German VAT law altogether. Because the US is not an EU country, there is no EU reverse charge and no EC Sales List.

Rules and figures for 2026

VAT on Patreon's fees

For new creators who publish from 4 August 2025, Patreon charges its fees plus applicable taxes. Existing creators should not see an increase, according to Patreon. If you provide a valid VAT ID and Patreon therefore does not charge VAT on its fees, Patreon says it is your responsibility to assess whether you must account for VAT on the services you buy from Patreon. Without a valid VAT ID, Patreon may charge VAT that you may not be able to recover. You enter the VAT ID in the W-8 form in the tax section of your Patreon account.

The legal position is not settled. Following the logic of the supply chain, the fee is the platform's margin and not a separate supply to you. If it is instead treated as a supply to you by a US business, you owe German VAT on it under reverse charge (§ 13b(2) No. 1 and (5) UStG).

For creators who charge VAT normally, this is neutral, because they deduct the same amount as input VAT. For small businesses, the tax would be a real cost, and they would have to file VAT returns for the periods concerned. Decide once how you treat the fees and then apply that consistently.

German law does not require a VAT ID for supplies to a US company. It is still useful, because of the fees and because you need one when buying ads or software from other EU countries. In Germany the VAT ID (USt-IdNr.) is different from your tax number (Steuernummer) from the local tax office and from your personal tax ID (Steuer-ID). Patreon needs the VAT ID with the "DE" prefix.

Income tax, trade tax and DAC7 reporting

Patreon income is business income. In most cases you run a trade under § 15 EStG and must register a business; the steps are in registering as a self-employed creator. Trade tax only applies to trade income above €24,500 (§ 11 GewStG), see trade tax for creators.

For your profit, it makes no difference whether you record the payout as income, or the member payments as income and the fees as expenses. What matters is that you use one method consistently and do not record the members' VAT as your income, because Patreon remits it. You find the data in Patreon's earnings section and exports. Convert foreign currency at the rate on the day you receive the money.

Patreon says it does not withhold any tax from your earnings. At the same time, Patreon reports data on EU-resident creators every January for the previous year. Because Patreon, Inc. is not tax resident in any EU country, it reports to the Irish tax authority, which shares the data with other EU countries. For individuals, this includes:

• name, address, date of birth,

• tax identification number (in Germany: your Steuer-ID) and VAT number, if any,

• amounts paid by fans for reportable income (excluding taxes) and fees paid to Patreon,

• a financial account identifier such as a PayPal or Stripe account.

According to Patreon, reportable income covers certain services such as commissions, live chats and fan requests, and tangible goods. Expect your tax office to know your figures.

Worked example: Patreon plus one commission

Example: An illustrator in Cologne has members mainly in Germany in 2026. Members pay €30,000 a year excluding the VAT that Patreon adds and remits. She is on the standard plan with a 10% platform fee. Assumption: payment processing fees are €1,800. She also earns €6,000 from a German publisher for a commissioned work. Her total turnover in 2025 was €7,000.

She remains a small business. Had she counted the €25,200, she would have appeared to exceed the limit with €31,200 and would have charged VAT from 2027 without reason.

If the platform fee is treated as a supply to her, the following is added:

For income tax, her income is €31,200 (€25,200 payout plus €6,000 commission), less her other expenses. As a small business, non-deductible reverse charge VAT would also be a business expense.

If the tax office asks you for VAT on Patreon income

Patreon notes that German tax offices sometimes ask creators for VAT on their Patreon income. Patreon says the platform rule in § 3(11a) UStG was introduced in 2015 but is still not frequently applied. Do not simply pay the amount demanded; respond with evidence.

Patreon recommends providing the "VAT charges CSV" from your earnings dashboard, together with an explanation. Its template states that Patreon, Inc. operates under the EU marketplace rules, that the law requires Patreon and not the creator to register for VAT, and that Patreon remits the VAT to the Irish tax authority under the EU one-stop scheme. Patreon itself refers to § 3(11a) of the German VAT Act. Download this export every year and keep it with your records. Reply in German, as German is the official language of the tax administration (§ 87 AO).

Special cases

• One-time purchases in the Patreon shop: Digital products that members buy individually go through the same chain. For creators who started after 26 May 2025, Patreon charges 5% to 12% depending on the plan, plus taxes and payment processing; creators who started earlier pay 5%.

• Memberships on your own website: If you sell subscriptions directly without a platform, you supply the fans yourself and owe the VAT. For fans in other EU countries, their country's rate applies once your EU-wide sales exceed €10,000 a year (§ 3a(5) UStG).

• Other platforms: If you also use YouTube, Twitch or TikTok, the entity of each platform decides the treatment. See VAT for creators in Germany, YouTube taxes in Germany and Twitch taxes in Germany.

• Ads for your Patreon page: For ads on Google or Meta, you owe German VAT under § 13b UStG yourself, even as a small business. See VAT on Google Ads (in German).

Common mistakes

• Paying 19% VAT on payouts: The supply to Patreon, Inc. is not taxable in Germany. Patreon has already remitted the members' VAT.

• Counting Patreon payouts towards the small business limit: Only supplies taxable in Germany count. An unnecessary waiver of the small business regulation binds you for five years (§ 19(3) UStG).

• Filing an EC Sales List for Patreon: It only applies to business customers in the EU.

• Thinking Patreon is "tax-free": No VAT does not mean no tax. Income tax and possibly trade tax apply, and Patreon reports your earnings.

• Recording members' VAT as income: It belongs to Patreon and the tax authorities, not to you.

• Treating fees without a decision: Decide once whether reverse charge applies to the platform fee and stick to it.

• Entering the Steuernummer instead of the VAT ID: Patreon needs the VAT ID starting with "DE".

CAPSIVERA is a tax advisory firm in Cologne specialising in content creators, crafts and building services. The German version of this guide is VAT on Patreon (in German).