The situation
A menu sold to eat in, to take away and through delivery platforms
A noodle-bar group runs eleven outlets in Leipzig, Wrocław and Brno. The same menu is sold at the table, over the counter in paper boxes and through two delivery apps. Finance is rolling out a new till system next month and has to load a VAT rate for every item and every channel in each country.
The menu has 64 items, including drinks and two meal deals at a single price. The hours go on the edges: what counts as eating in when the outlet has only a ledge and stools, how to split the meal deal, and which rules changed since the old till was set up.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Service or goods is the first question
- EU law treats the supply of food with enough support services for immediate consumption, such as tables, seating and waiting staff, as a restaurant service. Food handed over without those services is generally a supply of goods, and the two can carry different rates.
- Germany: check the date and the item
- Germany has changed the rate on food served in restaurants more than once since 2020, and drinks have not always followed food. Confirm the rate in force on the date of supply before loading the till.
- Poland and the Czech Republic classify by item
- Polish rates follow the classification of each product or service, so the same dish can be treated differently at the table and at the counter. The Czech Republic merged its two reduced rates into one in 2024. In both, alcoholic drinks sit outside the reduced rate for catering.
- Meal deals need an apportionment method
- A single price for items at different rates has to be split between them on a reasonable basis that the business applies consistently. Which methods the tax authority accepts is part of the research.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Noodle bars in Leipzig, Wrocław and Brno. Same menu eaten at tables, sold over the counter in boxes and delivered via apps. For food, soft drinks and beer, what VAT treatment applies per channel in each country today, and how do we split a meal deal sold at one price?
You start with
A menu sold to eat in, to take away and through delivery platforms
- 01
Describe the outlets and the channels
Say what each outlet offers guests who eat in and how takeaway and delivery orders are handed over. azta searches the VAT Directive, the EU implementing rules and the German, Polish and Czech VAT acts.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the provisions in force on the date
Ask about the rate on a given date and open each cited provision in the original language with its in-force status, including earlier versions.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Find the decisions on the borderline
Ask how the courts treated food courts, counters with stools and delivery. azta summarises the Court of Justice and national decisions and links each one.
Case-law search - 04
Draft the till rate sheet
Ask for one table per country: item group, channel, treatment and the provision behind it. Edit it in Canvas before it goes to the till supplier.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A till rate sheet per country, with the rule behind each split
What you get
A till rate sheet per country, with the rule behind each split
Till rate sheet · draft
Menu VAT treatment by channel: Leipzig, Wrocław, Brno
How to read this sheet. Each item group has one row per channel: eat-in, counter takeaway and delivery. The treatment shown is the one in force on 1 November 2026. Where a rule changed in the last two years, the earlier treatment is noted for corrections to past periods.
Eat-in. All three countries treat food served at our tables with seating and service as a restaurant service. Alcoholic drinks are shown separately in every country because they do not follow the food.
Meal deals. The single price is split between the food and the drink in proportion to their individual menu prices. This method is applied the same way in every outlet and documented in the till configuration.
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 menu VAT reviews a quarter
- 1.5
- 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.
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Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Gesetze im Internet
- Dziennik Ustaw
- e-Sbírka
What stays with you
- The facts about each outlet: seating, service and how orders are handed over.
- The apportionment method for meal deals, and applying it consistently.
- Loading the rates and testing the till before it goes live.
Frequently asked questions
- Can azta tell us the rate on a past date?
- Yes. Ask about the law at a past date and azta answers from the version in force then, which matters when correcting earlier returns.
- Does it set up our till?
- No. It researches and cites the rules and drafts the rate sheet. Your team decides the treatment and configures the system.
- Can we upload the menu?
- Yes, on Pro. Upload the menu as a PDF or spreadsheet and azta reads it, referring back to the items it relied on.
