The situation
The agency’s staffing invoices to clients at home and abroad
A staffing agency in Opole supplies 120 warehouse workers to a distribution centre in Venlo and about 300 to manufacturers in Silesia. The Dutch client’s accounts payable has rejected two invoices, asking why Polish VAT is shown. The agency’s finance team needs the right treatment for each flow before the month’s invoicing run.
The VAT rule for cross-border services is familiar. Staff hire adds layers: whether the supply is staff or a service of another kind, how the Dutch client’s liability for the agency’s taxes works, and what a Polish client needs to see. Getting the invoice wording right for both is the job.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Business clients abroad: the general rule
- Supplying staff to a business customer is a service taxed where the customer is established. A Polish agency invoicing a Dutch business charges no Polish VAT, and the Dutch client accounts for Dutch VAT under the reverse charge.
- At cost is still a supply
- Providing staff for a fee is a taxable supply even if the fee only covers salary costs. The Court of Justice has confirmed this for staff seconded between related companies and reimbursed at cost.
- The Dutch hirer can be liable
- Dutch law can make a hirer of staff liable for the agency’s unpaid wage taxes and VAT relating to the hired workers. Paying part of the invoice into the agency’s blocked G-account can limit that liability.
- At home, check the special mechanisms
- Within Poland, the agency charges Polish VAT. The research should confirm whether any special mechanism, such as mandatory split payment, applies to the client’s invoices.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Polish sp. z o.o. supplies temporary warehouse workers to a Dutch BV in Venlo. The workers are employed by us and work under the BV’s supervision. Is Polish VAT due on our invoices, what must the invoice say, and what is the Dutch client’s position on hirer’s liability?
You start with
The agency’s staffing invoices to clients at home and abroad
- 01
Upload the rejected invoices
Add the invoices and the framework agreement with the Dutch client. azta reads them and refers back to the passage it relied on.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research each flow
Ask about the Dutch and the Polish clients in turn. azta cites the VAT Directive, the Polish and Dutch VAT acts, the Dutch collection rules and the Court of Justice decisions.
Cited research· Free - 03
Draft the invoicing note
Ask for the treatment and the required invoice wording per client flow. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Send it to billing
Export to Word for the billing team and attach it to the corrected invoices for the Dutch client.
Word export· Pro You send
A note on the VAT treatment and invoice wording for each client flow
What you get
A note on the VAT treatment and invoice wording for each client flow
Invoicing note · draft
Staff hire invoices: Dutch and Polish clients
Dutch client. The supply of staff to the Venlo BV is taxed in the Netherlands. Invoices carry no Polish VAT, state that the reverse charge applies and show both VAT numbers. The supplies go on the Polish recapitulative statement. The two rejected invoices are reissued as corrections.
Hirer’s liability. The Dutch client may be liable for wage taxes and VAT relating to the workers it hires from us. It may ask to pay part of each invoice into a G-account. We recommend opening one and stating the split on the invoice.
Polish clients. Domestic supplies carry Polish VAT. Whether split payment is mandatory for these invoices is set out in Annex 1 with the provision relied on.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
22 minutes a month
At €75 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
- €1,620
- More staff-hire VAT questions a quarter
- 2.7
- Return on Pro
- 5×
- 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 demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Dziennik Ustaw
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst
What stays with you
- The facts on who directs the workers, which decide whether this is staff hire.
- The relationship with the Dutch client and its accounts payable.
- The VAT returns and recapitulative statements.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a team delivering a project the same as staff hire?
- Not necessarily. If the agency delivers an agreed result under its own direction, the supply may be a different service with different rules. Describe how the work is directed and azta researches the distinction.
- Does it cover the Dutch wage tax side?
- Yes. Ask separately about wage tax for workers employed in the Netherlands and azta cites the Dutch rules.
- Does azta file the recapitulative statement?
- No. It researches and drafts. Returns and statements stay with your team.
