In the VAT4U system, your tax portal certificate is securely stored with advanced AES-256 encryption. This robust security ensures that your certificate is protected and can only be accessed when the required password is provided. The certificate is used exclusively for logging into the Tax Administration portals through our automated systems when submitting claims (for example the Dutch electronic 8th Directive submission and the German BZST 8th and 13th Directive submissions).
You can upload and manage certificates under My Account → Home company settings → TAX portals:
To upload a new certificate, follow these steps:
File Upload: Upload your certificate file (.PFX format).
Select Countries: Choose the countries where this certificate will be used for Tax portal access.
Set Expiry Date: Specify the expiration date for the certificate.
Give other companies access (optional): Turn on this switch if other companies in VAT4U should be able to submit their claims with this certificate. See Sharing a certificate with other companies below.
Click Store new certificate.
Once uploaded, the details will be displayed in a table format, which includes:
File Name: The name of the uploaded certificate file. Certificates shared with your company by another company carry a Shared by [company] tag.
Used For Countries: The countries where the certificate is applicable.
Shared With: The companies that may use this certificate. Shows Not shared if the certificate is only used by your own company.
Uploaded At: The date and time when the certificate was uploaded.
Expire Date: The date when the certificate will no longer be valid. You receive reminder emails as the date approaches.
Actions: Manage who has access to the certificate, or delete it. These actions are only available for certificates your company owns.
Sharing a certificate with other companies (delegated access)
If one entity holds the tax portal certificate but several companies file claims with it (for example a group holding filing on behalf of its subsidiaries, or a tax advisor filing for clients), you can give those companies access to the certificate. Their users can then submit claims with it directly, without ever receiving the certificate file, the portal username or the passphrase.
How to share a certificate
You can share a certificate while uploading it, or later from the Actions column using the Manage access icon.
Turn on Give other companies access to this certificate (upload) or open Manage access (existing certificate).
Select companies: Search for and select the companies that may use the certificate. You can only select companies you have access to in VAT4U. Use the filter icon next to the field to pick companies from a searchable table.
Tax portal username: Enter the username used to log in to the Tax Administration portal with this certificate.
Certificate passphrase: Enter the passphrase of the certificate.
Click Store new certificate or Save.
The username and passphrase are required for sharing because the users of the other companies will not be asked for them. Both are stored encrypted alongside the certificate and are never displayed anywhere in VAT4U, not to your own users and not to the users of the companies you shared the certificate with.
Changing or removing access
Open Manage access on the certificate at any time to:
Add or remove companies. Leave the username and passphrase fields empty to keep the stored credentials.
Rotate the credentials. Enter a new username and passphrase together; both fields must be filled to replace the stored ones.
Stop sharing completely. Remove every company and save. The stored username and passphrase are deleted at the same time, and the certificate goes back to being used only by your own company, with credentials entered at submission time.
Deleting a certificate also removes it for every company it was shared with.
What the other companies see
Users of a company you shared the certificate with will find it:
in their own TAX portals tab, marked Shared by [your company]. They cannot edit, share or delete it.
in the Submission tab of their claims, where they can select it like any of their own certificates.
Submitting a claim with a certificate
In the claim, open the Submission tab and:
Select the certificate from the list of previously uploaded certificates. Certificates shared with your company show the owner's name next to the file name.
Enter the portal username and password, if requested.
If the selected certificate was shared with your company, the username and password fields are disabled and an information box confirms that no credentials are required. The stored credentials are applied automatically in the background when the claim is submitted. The same applies to the certificate owner's own users once credentials have been stored with the certificate.
If you do not see the certificate you need, ask an administrator of your company to upload one under TAX portals, or ask the certificate owner to share it with your company.