The situation
A German client’s consulting invoice to a customer in the Netherlands
Your client, a consultancy in Hamburg, has won its first Dutch customer. They want to know whether to charge German VAT, Dutch VAT or none, and what the invoice should say. They want the answer this week, in writing.
You know the general rule. What takes the evening is the rest: confirming the customer is a taxable person, checking the service is not one of the exceptions, getting the invoice wording right and remembering the recapitulative statement. Then you write it up so the client can act on it without calling you back.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- The general rule for business customers
- For services supplied to a taxable person acting as such, the place of supply is where the customer has established its business. A Dutch business customer moves the supply to the Netherlands.
- Who accounts for the VAT
- When the supplier is not established in the customer’s country, the customer accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge. The German consultancy charges no VAT and the Dutch customer self-assesses.
- The exceptions that change the answer
- Services connected with immovable property, passenger transport, admission to events and short-term hire of means of transport follow their own rules. A consulting engagement tied to a specific Dutch building is the case to rule out.
- Status and paperwork
- Check the customer’s VAT number in VIES and keep the result. The invoice states that the reverse charge applies and shows both VAT numbers. The supply goes on the German recapitulative statement for the period.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
German GmbH provides management consulting to a Dutch BV with a valid VAT number. No link to Dutch real estate. Where is the place of supply, who pays the VAT, and what must the invoice and the ZM show?
You start with
A German client’s consulting invoice to a customer in the Netherlands
- 01
Ask the question as the client put it
Describe the supply, the two countries and the customer’s status. azta searches the VAT Directive, the German and Dutch VAT acts and the court decisions on the same point.
Cited research· Free - 02
Open the provisions, not a summary
Each step of the answer is cited. Click a citation and the provision opens in the reader, in the original language, with its in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Turn it into the letter
Ask for a client letter in plain language with a short checklist for the invoice. Edit it in Canvas and select any passage to shorten, re-tone or translate it.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Send it as Word
Export the letter to Word, add your sign-off and send it. The citations stay with the research for your file.
Word export· Pro You send
A client letter on place of supply, reverse charge and what the invoice must say
What you get
A client letter on place of supply, reverse charge and what the invoice must say
Client letter · draft
VAT on your consulting invoice to the Dutch customer
Because your customer is a business established in the Netherlands, the consulting service is treated as supplied there. You should not charge German VAT on this invoice.
Your customer accounts for the Dutch VAT itself under the reverse-charge rules. Please state on the invoice that the reverse charge applies and show both VAT numbers. We have checked the customer’s number in VIES today and kept the confirmation.
The supply also goes on your recapitulative statement for the period of the invoice. If the engagement later involves work on a specific property in the Netherlands, please tell us first, as a different rule may then apply.
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
- 54
- Capacity at your rate
- €8,100
- More client letters on cross-border VAT a quarter
- 4.5
- Return on Pro
- 25×
- 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
- Gesetze im Internet
- Rechtsprechung im Internet
- wetten.overheid.nl
What stays with you
- Confirming the facts with the client, including whether any work is tied to Dutch property.
- The position you take and the advice you sign.
- Reading the cited provisions before the letter goes out.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta decide the VAT treatment?
- No. It finds and cites the rules and drafts the letter. You check the provisions and take the position, as you would with a colleague’s research.
- Can I check the provision myself?
- Yes. Every claim in the answer is cited, and the citation opens the provision itself with its in-force status.
- What if the customer is a private person?
- Then the general business-customer rule does not apply and the answer changes. Put that in the question and azta researches the consumer rules instead.
