The situation
A product catalogue with descriptions and customs codes, uploaded as a spreadsheet
A Czech online retailer sells organic food, food supplements, children’s books, baby car seats and kitchen gift boxes. It ships from Prague to consumers at home and in Poland and Spain. The catalogue has 1,400 lines, and the rates were set three years ago by a colleague who has since left.
Each line has to be checked three times, once per country. A product that takes a reduced rate in one country may take the standard rate in the next. The time goes on the borderline lines: supplements, gift boxes that mix food with kitchenware, and books sold with a toy.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Each country picks from an EU list
- Member states may apply reduced rates only to the goods and services listed in the VAT Directive, and each chooses which to use. The same product can take three different rates in three countries.
- Classification often follows the customs code
- National rate lists often describe goods by Combined Nomenclature code. Getting the code right is often most of the answer, and a marketing description is not enough.
- Bundles follow the composite-supply rules
- Whether a gift box is one supply at one rate or several supplies at different rates follows the Court of Justice’s case law on single and multiple supplies, as applied by national courts.
- Binding rulings are available
- Poland issues binding rate information and Spain answers binding tax queries. For a high-volume line, a ruling can settle the rate before the exposure builds up.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Attached is our catalogue with CN codes. We are a Czech retailer selling to consumers in the Czech Republic, Poland and Spain. For each product group, which VAT rate applies in each country, and which lines are borderline enough to need a binding ruling?
You start with
A product catalogue with descriptions and customs codes, uploaded as a spreadsheet
- 01
Upload the catalogue
Add the catalogue export with descriptions and customs codes. azta reads the file and refers back to the rows behind each answer.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research the rate per product group
Ask about each product group in turn. azta cites the Czech, Polish and Spanish VAT acts and the reduced-rate annexes.
Cited research· Free - 03
Open the rate lists
For borderline lines, open each country’s rate list in the reader in the original language, with its in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 04
Build the rate table
Ask for a table by product group and country, with flagged lines and the reason for each. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A rate table per country, with the lines that need a ruling flagged
What you get
A rate table per country, with the lines that need a ruling flagged
Rate table · draft
Catalogue VAT rates: Czech Republic, Poland, Spain
Food. Organic food lines within each country’s reduced-rate list take the reduced rate shown per country in the table. Lines 214 to 238, food supplements, are flagged because their classification as food is disputed.
Books. Printed children’s books take a rate below the standard rate in all three countries. Books sold with a toy are flagged: the answer depends on whether the set is one supply and which element is the principal one.
Lines needing a decision. Twelve lines are flagged, mainly gift boxes and supplements. For the four with the highest volume we suggest binding rate information in Poland and a binding query in Spain.
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
- 29
- Capacity at your rate
- €2,448
- More catalogue rate reviews a quarter
- 0.7
- Return on Pro
- 7.6×
- 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 the customs code for each product.
- Deciding the rate on borderline lines and whether to seek a ruling.
- Updating the shop and the accounting system.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta know about rate changes?
- Legislation is indexed daily, and each citation shows whether the provision is in force on the date you ask about.
- Can it assign customs codes?
- It can explain how the classification rules apply to a product description, with sources. The code you use is your decision, or your customs broker’s.
- How large a catalogue can I upload?
- Upload the file you are checking. For a large catalogue, work through it by product group so that each answer stays traceable to its rows.
