The situation
A year of electricity and gas invoices for two plants
A packaging manufacturer runs a paper-converting plant near Augsburg and a smaller one in Wels, Upper Austria. Energy is its second-largest cost after board. The new CFO finds that the German plant claimed a relief for some years and then stopped, and that nobody in Wels has ever applied for the Austrian refund.
Reliefs exist in both countries, but each turns on its own tests: whether the business counts as manufacturing, which processes the energy is used in, what share of output value the energy taxes make up. The time goes on reading a year of invoices against those tests, and on claim deadlines that look backwards.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- EU law sets the frame
- The Energy Taxation Directive sets minimum rates for electricity and energy products and lets member states reduce tax for businesses, including energy-intensive ones. Some uses, such as dual use and certain metallurgical and mineralogical processes, fall outside its scope.
- Germany: reliefs tied to activity and process
- German electricity and energy tax law gives reliefs to businesses classified as manufacturing, and separate exemptions for listed energy-intensive processes. The classification follows the business’s economic activity, so it is the first thing to establish.
- Austria: a refund measured against production value
- Austria refunds energy taxes to manufacturing businesses to the extent they exceed a set share of the net production value. The refund is applied for per calendar year.
- Claims come after the fact, within time limits
- In both countries these reliefs are claimed by application after the period, within statutory time limits, so earlier years may still be open. Rates and conditions change, and the research confirms them for each year claimed.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
We convert paper into packaging at plants in Augsburg, Germany, and Wels, Austria. Energy invoices for 2025 attached. Which electricity and energy tax reliefs can each plant claim as a manufacturer, how and by when is each claimed, and can earlier years still be claimed?
You start with
A year of electricity and gas invoices for two plants
- 01
Upload the invoices
Add a year of electricity and gas invoices for each plant. azta reads the quantities and the taxes shown and refers back to each invoice.
File upload· Pro - 02
Classify each plant’s activity
Ask for the activity code of each plant’s main activity, with the reasoning. The German reliefs turn on it.
Activity-code classification· Free - 03
Research the reliefs
Ask which reliefs each plant can claim. azta cites the German electricity and energy tax acts, the Austrian refund law and the Directive.
Cited research· Free - 04
Draft the note
Ask for a note per plant with the relief, the conditions, the claim route and the years still open. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A note on the energy-tax reliefs each plant can claim, how and by when
What you get
A note on the energy-tax reliefs each plant can claim, how and by when
CFO note · draft
Energy-tax relief, Augsburg and Wels
Augsburg. The plant’s main activity is classified as manufacturing, which is the starting condition for the German reliefs for manufacturing businesses. The plant claimed until 2022 and then stopped when the person handling it left. We propose to claim for the years still open and to make the claim a standing year-end task.
Wels. As a manufacturing business, the plant can apply for the Austrian energy-tax refund to the extent its energy taxes exceed the statutory share of its net production value. The 2025 invoices show the energy taxes paid; finance will calculate the net production value from the accounts.
Next steps. Confirm the years still open in each country, assemble the invoices and meter data per year, and file with the competent authority in each country. The figures in each claim come from finance, not from this note.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
11 minutes a month
At €150 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
- 25
- Capacity at your rate
- €3,780
- More energy-tax relief reviews a quarter
- 0.7
- Return on Pro
- 11.7×
- 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.
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- EUR-Lex · Curia
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What stays with you
- The figures: consumption, metering and the net production value.
- Filing the claims with the customs and tax authorities.
- Authority forms and guidance, which azta does not hold for every country.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta calculate the refund?
- No. It sets out the conditions, the method and the deadlines with the provisions, and drafts the note. The calculation is yours.
- The rates change. Is the answer current?
- Legislation is indexed daily, and each citation shows whether the provision is in force on the date you ask about. Ask about each claim year separately.
- Can it classify our activity?
- Yes. Activity-code classification gives a code and the reasoning, which you then confirm against what the plant actually does.
