The situation
A room-and-breakfast package sold at a single price
A family hotel company runs a 90-room hotel in Salzburg and a 60-room hotel in Berchtesgaden, half an hour apart. Both sell the same package online: room, breakfast and parking at one price per night. The booking engine posts the whole amount to accommodation in both hotels.
The auditors have asked how the package is split for VAT. The finance team suspects the answer differs between the two houses. The hours go on finding the rule for each element, the allocation method each tax authority accepts and what the folio must show.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- EU law permits, member states choose
- The VAT Directive allows reduced rates for hotel accommodation and for restaurant services. Each member state decides whether to use them and how far they reach, so the same package can be split differently a few kilometres apart.
- Germany splits breakfast from the room
- German law limits the reduced rate for short-term accommodation to the letting itself. Breakfast, parking and similar services do not share that treatment, even when sold at one price, so the package price must be divided.
- Austria keeps a customary breakfast with the room
- Austrian law treats a customary breakfast included in the room price as an ancillary part of the accommodation. Half board, drinks and parking need their own analysis.
- The allocation must be documented
- German administrative guidance has accepted a simplified allocation for some package elements. Whether it fits this package is a research question, and the invoice must show the amounts at each rate.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Hotels in Salzburg and Berchtesgaden sell a package: room, breakfast and one parking space, single price per night, sold to private guests. How must each hotel split the price for VAT, and which allocation methods does each tax authority accept?
You start with
A room-and-breakfast package sold at a single price
- 01
Describe the package element by element
List what the guest gets for the price. azta searches the VAT Directive and the Austrian and German VAT acts for the treatment of each element.
Cited research· Free - 02
Check the provision behind each element
Open each citation in the original language with its in-force status, and compare versions where a rule has changed.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Find the decisions on packages
Ask how the courts treated breakfast, parking and wellness in hotel packages. azta summarises the decisions and links the full text.
Case-law search - 04
Draft the allocation note
Ask for a note per hotel with a table of elements, treatment and allocation method. Edit it in Canvas and export to Word for the auditors.
Word export· Pro You send
An allocation note showing the VAT treatment of each element, per hotel
What you get
An allocation note showing the VAT treatment of each element, per hotel
Allocation note · draft
Room-and-breakfast package: VAT allocation by hotel
Salzburg. The breakfast included in the room price is treated as part of the accommodation and follows its treatment. Parking is a separate service and is allocated its own share of the package price. The folio template is being changed to show it.
Berchtesgaden. Only the letting of the room takes the accommodation treatment. Breakfast and parking are separate services. Until now the full price was posted to accommodation, so the returns for open periods need review.
Method. For Berchtesgaden we propose to allocate the package price using the individual prices at which breakfast and parking are sold on their own. The simplified allocation in the administrative guidance was considered and is noted in the annex.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
18 minutes a month
At €90 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
- 36
- Capacity at your rate
- €3,240
- More package VAT allocation notes a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 10×
- 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.
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Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- RIS
- Gesetze im Internet
- Rechtsprechung im Internet
What stays with you
- What the package really includes, from the booking engine to the breakfast room.
- The allocation method and the decision to correct earlier periods.
- Agreeing the treatment with the auditors and the tax advisor.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta calculate the split?
- No. It finds and cites the rules and the accepted methods, and drafts the note. Your team applies the method to its own prices.
- What about half board and all-inclusive?
- Put them in the question. Meals beyond breakfast and drinks raise their own rules, and azta researches each element separately.
- Can I see the rule as it stood last year?
- Yes. Ask about the law at a past date, which helps when reviewing earlier returns.
