The situation
Electricity and gas trading flows between two countries
A Dutch energy company sells electricity and gas to German counterparties: utilities that resell, other traders and an industrial consumer near Duisburg. Its German subsidiary trades domestically. The new head of tax has inherited a VAT mapping nobody has checked since the subsidiary was set up.
Energy supplied through networks does not follow the ordinary goods rules. The hours go on classifying each counterparty, deciding whether a supply is to a reseller or for its own use, checking whose reverse charge applies to each flow, and agreeing what each invoice must say.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Network energy has its own rules
- The VAT Directive has special place-of-supply rules for gas through the natural gas system, electricity, and heat or cooling through networks. They replace the ordinary rules for goods.
- To a reseller: where the reseller is established
- Where the customer is a taxable dealer, whose main activity is reselling the energy and whose own consumption is negligible, the supply takes place where the dealer is established.
- To anyone else: where the energy is used
- Where the customer uses the energy itself, the supply takes place where it is effectively used and consumed. An industrial customer consuming power at its German plant receives a supply in Germany.
- The reverse charge follows
- Where the supplier is not established in the country of supply, the customer generally accounts for the VAT if it is registered there. Germany also applies a domestic reverse charge to supplies of electricity and gas to resellers.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Dutch energy company sells electricity and gas to (a) German utilities that resell, (b) an industrial consumer near Duisburg, (c) German traders. Its German subsidiary also trades domestically. Where is each supply taxed, who accounts for the VAT and what must the invoices say?
You start with
Electricity and gas trading flows between two countries
- 01
Upload the counterparty list
Add the list of counterparties with their activity and VAT numbers. azta reads it and refers back to the rows it relied on.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research each flow
Ask how each flow is treated. azta cites the VAT Directive, the German and Dutch VAT acts and the Court of Justice decisions on the special rules.
Cited research· Free - 03
Read the provisions side by side
Open the German and Dutch provisions in the reader, in the original language, with their in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 04
Write the flow note
Ask for a table by flow: counterparty type, place of supply, who accounts for the VAT and what the invoice states. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A VAT note per flow on place of supply, reverse charge and invoicing
What you get
A VAT note per flow on place of supply, reverse charge and invoicing
VAT note · draft
Energy flows to German counterparties
Sales to German utilities and traders. These customers resell the energy and their own consumption is negligible, so they are taxable dealers. The supplies take place in Germany, where they are established. The Dutch company invoices without VAT and the customers account for German VAT under the reverse charge.
Sales to the Duisburg plant. The customer consumes the electricity and gas itself, so the supplies take place in Germany, where the energy is used. Because the Dutch company supplies without a German establishment, the customer accounts for the VAT, as it is registered in Germany.
German subsidiary. Its domestic sales to resellers fall under the German domestic reverse charge. Its sales to end customers carry German VAT. Guarantees of origin are treated separately from the energy and are covered in Annex 2.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
13 minutes a month
At €130 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 43
- Capacity at your rate
- €5,616
- More energy VAT flow notes a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 17.3×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Gesetze im Internet
- wetten.overheid.nl
What stays with you
- Classifying each counterparty, which needs their own confirmation.
- The position on mixed or unclear cases.
- The returns and the invoicing set-up.
Frequently asked questions
- Does it cover heat and cooling as well?
- Yes. Heat and cooling through networks follow the same special rules. Ask with the facts and azta cites the provisions.
- What about guarantees of origin and emission allowances?
- They are not energy supplies and follow other rules. Ask about them separately and azta researches their treatment in each country.
- Does it cover energy taxes as well as VAT?
- It researches the energy tax legislation it holds alongside VAT. The duty calculation and the filings stay with your team.
