The situation
A medical product catalogue with descriptions and customs codes, uploaded
A medical supplies distributor in Brno sells 420 products in the Czech Republic and is opening a Polish online shop: wound dressings, glucose meters, walking aids, single-use syringes and a range of hospital trolleys. The Polish shop goes live in six weeks, and the ERP needs a VAT rate on every line before the first invoice.
The rate tables are public. The hours go on matching products to them: deciding whether a test strip falls within a reduced-rate entry, whether a kit is one supply or several, and which description a product really meets. A wrong rate on a high-volume line repeats on every invoice until someone notices.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Reduced rates are a national option
- The VAT Directive lets member states apply reduced rates to certain medical and pharmaceutical products. Whether a state uses the option, and for which products, is set in its own VAT act, so Poland and the Czech Republic can rate the same product differently.
- The device label does not settle the rate
- Being a medical device under the MDR is not the same test as falling in a reduced-rate category. National VAT law describes the reduced-rate goods in its own terms, often by customs code or product description, and the product has to fit that description.
- Kits raise the single-supply question
- A kit that combines a device with other items may be one supply taxed at the rate of its principal element, or several supplies taxed separately. The Court of Justice decides this from the point of view of the typical customer, and national courts apply that test to specific products.
- Certainty can be requested
- Poland issues binding rate information (WIS) that settles the rate for a described product. Where a high-volume line is unclear, the table should flag it for a request rather than guess.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Attached is our catalogue of 420 products with CN codes. Which VAT rate applies in Poland and in the Czech Republic to each group: dressings, glucose meters and strips, walking aids, syringes, hospital trolleys? Flag any group where the code alone does not settle it.
You start with
A medical product catalogue with descriptions and customs codes, uploaded
- 01
Upload the catalogue
Add the product list with descriptions and customs codes. azta reads it and refers back to the entry it relied on.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research the rate rules per country
Ask for the reduced-rate categories for medical products in each country. azta cites the Polish and Czech VAT acts and their annexes, and the VAT Directive.
Cited research· Free - 03
Draft the rate table
Ask for one row per product group: the rate in each country, the provision and a flag where the classification is uncertain. Refine it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Hand it to the ERP team
Export the table to Word with the open points listed separately, so the uncertain lines are decided before go-live.
Word export· Pro You send
A VAT rate table per product group for each country, with open points flagged
What you get
A VAT rate table per product group for each country, with open points flagged
VAT rate table · draft
Catalogue VAT rates: Poland and Czech Republic, product groups 1 to 12
Method. Each product group was matched to the reduced-rate entries in the Polish and Czech VAT acts using the customs code and the description in the catalogue. Rates are stated as at today and should be checked again if either act changes before go-live.
Groups with a clear answer. For eight of the twelve groups, the description and customs code match a single entry in each act, or no reduced-rate entry at all. The rate and the provision for each are in columns C to F.
Open points. Test strips sold without a meter, the first-aid kits and the trolley with an integrated scale need a decision. We recommend a binding rate information request in Poland for the test strips, which are the highest-volume line.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
20 minutes a month
At €85 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
- €3,672
- More product-group rate checks a quarter
- 2.7
- Return on Pro
- 11.3×
- 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 demoWhat stays with you
- The product facts: what each item is, what it is for and its customs code.
- The decision on uncertain lines, and whether to request a binding ruling.
- Setting up the rates in the ERP and testing the first invoices.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta assign customs codes?
- No. It works from the codes and descriptions in your catalogue and tells you where they do not settle the rate. Customs classification stays with your team or broker.
- Will the rates be current?
- Legislation is indexed daily and each citation shows its in-force status. You can also ask what the rate was at a past date, for a correction.
- Can it work through a long catalogue?
- File upload is on Pro. azta reads the uploaded catalogue and refers back to the passage it relied on. For long lists, ask by product group.
