I have recently been happy Billomat customer and write my bills with this online tool. Here and there I actually have clients abroad, so I have to send invoices to Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark or the Netherlands.
Chapter in this post:
No tax advisor ...
Note: I am not a trained finance specialist or tax person. Accordingly, my information should be treated with caution. It is possible that I mix up different terms here or write different types of cheese. If so, please let me know so I can correct it.
Omit sales tax if VAT is valid
As far as I know - and my tax advisor has so far had no objections either - I can send invoices to my foreign customers without sales tax, provided they provide me with a VAT number or a sales tax identification number (USt-IdNr.) That is valid is and belongs to your company. This applies to my case, since I carry out services for foreign companies, but I think things are different when it comes to shipping goods ... Anyway: Here you should better ask your taxpayer how it is in the individual case.
But if you submit an invoice without sales tax, the customer's VAT number must be mentioned on the invoice and you must refer to the reverse charge procedure. Even more, you have to include a reference to the reverse charge procedure in the national language of the invoice recipient on the invoice.
- Read more: Request invoices for purchases in the App Store and iTunes
- Read more: Amazon Business Prime - Why I became a member ...
Reverse charge notice in different languages
Now, of course, I was in Billomat and had no idea what “reverse charge” means in Dutch. Strangely enough, I am not familiar with the term in Spanish or Danish either. However, I was all the happier, that is, me this website on which the appropriate translation into various languages is listed.
And of course, as I always do, I'm writing a post on Sir Apfelot so that I can have the list available in the future if I ever need to look up a translation of “Tax Liability of the Beneficiary”. So here is my table with the terms and the corresponding countries.
| Country | Translation |
|---|---|
| Bulgaria | обратно начисляване |
| Denmark | omvendt betalingspligt |
| Estonia | pöördmaksustamine |
| Finland | käännetty verovelvollisuus |
| France, Belgium, Luxembourg | Car liquidation |
| Greece | Αντίστροφη επιβάρυνση |
| Great Britain, Ireland | Reverse Charge |
| Italy | inversion contable |
| Latvia | nodokļa apgrieztā maksāšana |
| Lithuania | Atvirkštinis apmokestinimas |
| Malta | Inverżjoni tal-ħlas |
| Netherlands | Btw laying |
| Poland | reverse charge |
| Romania | axare inversa |
| Portugal | Autoliquidação |
| Sweden | Omvänd betalningsskyldighet |
| Slovakia | prenesenie daňovej povinnosti |
| Slovenia | Reverse Charge |
| Spain | inversion del sujeto pasivo |
| Czechia | daň odvede zákazník |
| Hungary | fordított adozás |
Billomat placeholder and note for your EU bills
If you also work with Billomat (if not, test it here! It's really good!), You might like to take over my reference to reverse charge with the placeholder for the customer's VAT number. Here is my example for Dutch:
Tax liability of the service recipient / Btw verlegd / VAT: [Client.vat_number]
I guess this post will only be of interest to a small minority of people. I apologize to everyone else for bothering you with this on the Sir Apfelot blog. ;-)
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.
Hi Jens,
you have to write invoices [...]? I am happy every time I may! :-)
Best regards
Martin
PS: Great newsletter - I really look through it every time!
Hello Martin! To be honest, I prefer to work rather than write bills. That's why I often put it off until the account is in pain. : D But thanks to you for your praise, I'm happy!
An extremely complicated chapter with the EU bills.
It's not as simple as described. The fatal: If you make a mistake and do not suspect it could face years of VAT reclaim. Which you then have to pay with money that you never received as sales tax.
In the case of services in particular, there are tons of exceptions to the tax exemption for invoices to EU foreign customers:
- If your service takes place in DE: always invoice with 16 & 19% German VAT.
- Service and invoice recipient in other EU countries: reverse charge
... but with umpteen exceptions, all of which you should take a very close look at as a service provider. Then the reverse charge does not apply and you have to pay German VAT again. calculate. Did I mention the “complicated” thing? We are talking about 19% that the German tax authorities may be withholding for years without realizing it, but without ever having collected this 19%. The reclaims, interest and penalties of the FA can therefore be sensitively high.
- EU customer is a private customer or small business owner: German sales tax
... unless you exceed certain quantities for deliveries: then sales tax of the target country. Always German VAT for services.
You could go on and on so many exceptions are now. What was once thought of as a relief has become an extreme bureaucratic monster. Above all thanks to the carousel fraudsters.
A choice that you simply always use the German Ust. and the EU customer should just see how his German VAT. But you didn't get it again either. You are obliged to choose the correct type of tax!
I would also still put the words “reverse charge” to the ugly “customer liability” on the invoice for EU invoices for services. This is known and accepted throughout Europe as a designation. Or, depending on the target country, the corresponding translation, as you do if you want to make the effort for every EU customer.
By the way, we asked THREE tax offices about our EU VAT invoice cases and got two different answers. Even they don't get through anymore. In the end, we requested a binding response from the highest tax authority and explicitly secured ourselves against the German tax authorities, at least with the invoices and our cases to one of our largest EU customers. Otherwise the consequences would be incalculable if an examiner got stuck here.
There are tons of pages out there on the subject. You need days or weeks just to study. For example, here is one:
https://www.haufe.de/finance/steuern-finanzen/wechsel-der-steuerschuldnerschaft/sonstige-leistungen-von-unternehmern-im-eu-ausland_190_303214.html
Thank you for pointing this out to Haufe and your - certainly professional - tips. I rely on the tax advisor, because that's what you pay him for after all. But it may well be that I have presented my case too superficially. I just wanted to collect all the translations and make them available here.
Tax advisors are not liable for these things, it is the taxpayer's turn in the end. There are countries where that is not the case, but unfortunately it is in our country. So I wouldn't rely on a single statement on such complex issues. The StB. are also not all omniscient. The FA are very fun-free, especially when it comes to sales tax. But of course everyone should do it as they want :-)
Yes, in the worst case I just have to pay the tax later. But the invoice amounts are always so manageable that I take the risk. And you get quarterly feedback from Saarlouis as to whether the tax numbers went through with them ... so nothing bad has happened in my more than 20 years of self-employment. That's why I'm going to continue as before. : D