Netcup VAT, Billing & Contract Law Guide: 0% VAT Rules, BGB Terms & 31-Day Cancellation

Under German and European Union tax law (German Price Indication Ordinance — *Preisangabenverordnung, PAngV*), any storefront accessible to German consumers must display prices inclusive of the 19% statutory German Value Added Tax (*Mehrwertsteuer / Umsatzsteuer*).

However, once you enter your billing address and account classification during checkout or inside the Customer Control Panel (CCP), Netcup’s tax engine dynamically recalculates your tax rate under one of four statutory regimes:

Because removing 19% VAT divides the gross price by 1.19 (Net = Gross / 1.19), a 0% VAT buyer saves 15.97% off the sticker price—and when combined with our 2-Months-Free or 1-Month-Free vouchers on /coupons/, the compounded Year-1 effective rate drops by up to 29.94% below the public gross sticker price.

When comparing Netcup against US-headquartered cloud providers (such as DigitalOcean, Linode/Akamai, or Vultr), remember that US providers always advertise pre-tax net prices and add your local VAT at checkout, whereas Netcup advertises 19% VAT-inclusive gross prices upfront. Reviewing both columns side-by-side ensures an apples-to-apples infrastructure comparison:

When you submit your very first order on netcup.com as a new customer (Neukunde), Netcup does not charge your credit card or PayPal account instantaneously during the storefront checkout step. Instead, Netcup follows a two-stage verification workflow designed to prevent fraud and confirm your tax jurisdiction.

Because Netcup provisions dedicated hardware threads and clean IPv4 subnets without requiring an upfront security deposit, manual and automated compliance checks filter out spoofed identities before a server is allocated. Understanding the two stages helps international buyers complete onboarding without delay:

• ▪ Stage 1 — Order Submission & Manual/Automated Review: After submitting your cart (with your voucher code applied), you receive an automated Order Receipt confirmation (Bestelleingangsbestätigung). During German business hours, Netcup’s verification team reviews new customer registrations—sometimes sending an automated telephone/SMS PIN call or requesting a brief identity/address verification link for international orders.
• ▪ Stage 2 — CCP Credentials & Tax Status Activation: Once verified, you receive your Customer Control Panel (Kundennummer) login credentials, your account’s VAT status (e.g., 0% VAT for non-EU or verified VIES business) is locked into your billing profile, and your server is provisioned within minutes.

Understanding the difference between Anglo-American "pay-as-you-go" cloud instances and German fixed-term service contracts (*Dauerschuldverhältnisse*) prevents any billing surprises.

When you order a standard Netcup Root Server or VPS on the 12-month tariff (Mindestvertragslaufzeit: 12 Monate), you enter a binding bilateral contract for 12 months:

• ▪ Minimum Contract Period (Mindestvertragslaufzeit): Usually 12 months for standard/voucher server contracts and webhosting, or 1 month for flexible server contracts.
• ▪ Advance Billing Interval (Abrechnungszeitraum): The interval on which invoices are issued (commonly monthly, every 6 months, or every 12 months depending on product line). Even if a 12-month contract is billed monthly at €18.26/mo net (€21.73/mo gross), the contractual commitment remains 12 months.
• ▪ 31-Day Notice Period (Kündigungsfrist: 31 Tage): Under Netcup’s tariff terms, if you wish to terminate a contract at the end of its initial 12-month minimum term, you must submit your cancellation in the CCP at least 31 calendar days before the contract end date.
• ▪ Post-Year-1 Consumer Protection (BGB § 309 No. 9): Following Germany’s Fair Consumer Contracts Act reforms, once a consumer contract passes its initial 12-month commitment, it extends indefinitely on a rolling basis and can be canceled at any time with a 1-month notice period rather than locking you into another full 12-month block.

Contract Start Date (Provisioning):       2026-11-04
Voucher Applied (RS 1000 2 Mo Free):      2026-11-04 to 2027-01-04 (€0.00 billed)
Paid Months Within Initial Term:          2027-01-04 to 2027-11-04 (10 × €18.26 net / €21.73 gross)
Initial 12-Month Term End Date:           2027-11-04
Latest Deadline for Year-1 Termination:   2027-10-03 (31 calendar days prior to 2027-11-04)

# Pro Tip: You can schedule "Cancel at end of contract period" in CCP on Day 1 (2026-11-04)
# if you want the server to automatically expire on 2027-11-04 without renewing!

Unlike providers that require emailing support or telephoning retention agents, Netcup provides a statutory one-click electronic cancellation workflow (Kündigungsbutton pursuant to § 312k BGB) directly inside the Customer Control Panel: