The situation
Invoices to Italian clients for different kinds of legal work
A Barcelona law firm has three new Italian matters: a trademark dispute for a fashion company in Milan, the same company’s purchase of an office in Valencia, and a private client in Turin with a Spanish inheritance. The billing team asks whether each fee note carries Spanish VAT.
Legal services have no single answer. The client’s status moves the place of supply, and work tied to a property follows its own rule, with a line between conveyancing and general advice that the Implementing Regulation draws in detail. The hours go on classifying each matter and writing it down for billing.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Business clients: the client’s country
- Legal services to a taxable person acting as such are supplied where the client is established. The Milan company accounts for Italian VAT under the reverse charge, and the fee note carries no Spanish VAT.
- Private clients in the EU: the firm’s country
- For a non-taxable client in another member state, the general rule places the supply where the supplier is established. The Turin private client pays Spanish VAT.
- Property work follows the property
- Services connected with immovable property are supplied where the property is. Implementing Regulation 282/2011 brings conveyancing-type legal work within that rule and leaves general contract advice outside it. The Valencia office purchase is supplied in Spain.
- Clients outside the EU are different again
- Legal services to a non-taxable client established outside the EU are supplied where the client is. A private client in Switzerland would not pay Spanish VAT on the same advice.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Spanish law firm. Clients: an Italian company (trademark litigation in Spain), the same company (purchase of an office in Valencia, drafting the deed and title checks), an Italian private individual (Spanish inheritance). Where is the place of supply for each, and what must the invoice say?
You start with
Invoices to Italian clients for different kinds of legal work
- 01
Describe each matter
Give the client, its status and what the work involves. azta searches the VAT Directive, the Implementing Regulation and the Spanish VAT act.
Cited research· Free - 02
Open the provisions
Each step is cited. Open the provision in the reader, in the original language, with its in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Write the billing note
Ask for a note with one line per matter: place of supply, who pays the VAT and what the fee note must say. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A billing note on the VAT treatment of each matter
What you get
A billing note on the VAT treatment of each matter
Billing note · draft
VAT on fees for the three Italian matters
Trademark dispute, Milan company. The client is a business established in Italy. No Spanish VAT is charged; the fee note states that the reverse charge applies and shows both VAT numbers. Include the fees in the recapitulative statement.
Office purchase in Valencia. The work is connected with property in Spain, so the supply takes place in Spain whatever the client’s status. Charge Spanish VAT on this matter.
Inheritance, Turin private client. The client is not a business. The supply takes place where the firm is established, and Spanish VAT is charged.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
9 minutes a month
At €190 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
- €4,104
- More VAT billing notes for foreign clients a quarter
- 2.7
- Return on Pro
- 12.7×
- 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
- Confirming each client’s status and VAT number.
- Classifying mixed matters where property advice and general advice overlap.
- The fee notes and their VAT treatment.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta prepare the fee note?
- No. It researches the treatment and drafts the billing note. The fee note comes from your billing system.
- What if the client is a holding company with no VAT number?
- Status depends on the facts. Describe them and azta researches whether the client counts as a taxable person for this supply.
- Can I check the Spanish VAT act in Spanish?
- Yes. Every citation opens the provision in the original language with its in-force status.
