The situation
PV installations sold to homes and businesses in three countries
A solar installer with subsidiaries in Cologne, Eindhoven and Bristol sells rooftop panels, inverters and batteries to homeowners, landlords and a few small businesses. The new invoicing system needs a rule per product and customer type, and finance has to write it.
All three countries now zero-rate some solar installations, on different conditions. The hours go on the edges: a landlord’s block, a farm shed, a battery fitted a year after the panels, a shop with a flat above. Each answer decides the rate on the invoice.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- EU law allows a zero rate
- Since 2022, the VAT Directive allows member states to apply reduced rates, including a zero rate, to the supply and installation of solar panels on and near private dwellings, housing and certain public buildings.
- Germany: zero rate tied to the building
- German law applies a zero rate to the supply and installation of PV systems and their essential components, including storage, on or near private dwellings and certain other buildings. A capacity-based presumption makes smaller systems qualify without further proof.
- The Netherlands: zero rate for homes
- Dutch law applies a zero rate to the supply and installation of solar panels on or near homes. Panels on commercial buildings stay at the standard rate.
- The UK: energy-saving materials
- UK law zero-rates the installation of energy-saving materials, including solar panels, in residential accommodation, for a period set in the legislation. The UK is outside the EU, so this rests on UK law alone.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Solar installer with entities in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Which of these qualify for the zero rate: panels on a family home, panels on a landlord’s block of flats, a battery added later, panels on a farm shed? What must each invoice show?
You start with
PV installations sold to homes and businesses in three countries
- 01
Describe the products and customers
List what you sell and to whom: homes, landlords, farms, businesses. azta searches the VAT Directive, the German and Dutch VAT acts and UK VAT legislation.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the conditions in each country
Open each cited provision in the reader, in the original language, with its in-force status and any end date.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Write the invoicing note
Ask for a table by country, product and customer type, with the rate and what the invoice states. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Export for the system set-up
Export the note to Word for the team configuring the invoicing system.
Word export· Pro You send
A note on the VAT rate for each type of installation, ready for invoicing
What you get
A note on the VAT rate for each type of installation, ready for invoicing
Invoicing note · draft
VAT rate on solar installations by country
Germany. Panels, inverters and storage supplied and installed on or near a home or a block of flats are zero-rated, and systems within the capacity presumption need no further proof. A farm shed qualifies only if the building conditions are met, so send those orders to finance before invoicing.
Netherlands. Panels supplied and installed on or near a home are zero-rated. Panels on commercial or agricultural buildings carry the standard rate. Whether a battery sold on its own is covered is not settled for every case; send those orders to finance.
United Kingdom. Installation in residential accommodation is zero-rated for the period set in the legislation, and the rule now extends to qualifying batteries. Work on commercial premises carries the standard rate.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
21 minutes a month
At €80 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
- 22
- Capacity at your rate
- €1,728
- More VAT rate checks on installations a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 5.3×
- 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
- legislation.gov.uk
What stays with you
- Confirming the building type and use for each customer.
- The rules configured in the invoicing system.
- Judgement on mixed-use buildings.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I know the zero rate is still in force?
- Legislation is indexed daily, and each citation shows whether the provision is in force on the date you ask about. Ask again before any end date set in the law.
- Does azta cover the UK as well as the EU?
- Yes. It holds UK legislation from legislation.gov.uk alongside EU and national law, and the answer says which law each rule comes from.
- Can it check our invoices against the rule?
- Yes, on Pro. Upload a batch and ask azta to flag invoices whose rate does not match the rule for the product and customer.
