The situation
The facts of a triangular deal: Austrian intermediary, German supplier, Italian customer
Your client, a trading company in Linz, buys hydraulic valves from a manufacturer in Nuremberg and sells them to a machine builder in Verona. The valves go straight from Nuremberg to Verona with a carrier your client hires. Your client has no registration in Italy and would like to keep it that way.
Triangulation is the obvious answer, and the obvious answer is where mistakes are expensive. The time goes on testing each condition against the facts, confirming the transport belongs to the right supply, and getting the invoice wording and the recapitulative statement exactly right, because a missing reference can cost the simplification.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- The conditions are cumulative
- The simplification needs three businesses identified for VAT in three different Member States, goods moving directly from the first to the third, and an intermediary not established in the country of arrival. The customer must be identified for VAT there and be designated as liable for the VAT on the onward supply.
- The transport must belong to the first supply
- Triangulation works only if the moving supply is the supply to the intermediary. If the Italian customer collected the goods itself, the transport would belong to the second supply and the simplification would not fit.
- The invoice carries the simplification
- The intermediary’s invoice must show the customer’s VAT number and state that the customer is liable for the VAT. The Court of Justice has held that this reverse-charge reference is a substantive condition that cannot be supplied later by correcting the invoice. National law sets any further wording.
- Report it as triangulation
- The intermediary reports the onward supply in its recapitulative statement in its own country, marked as a triangular transaction. The Italian customer accounts for the VAT on the supply made to it.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Austrian GmbH buys valves from a German manufacturer and sells them to an Italian company with an Italian VAT number. Goods go from Nuremberg to Verona, carrier hired by the Austrian company, which uses its Austrian VAT number. Does triangulation apply, and what must the invoice and recapitulative statement show?
You start with
The facts of a triangular deal: Austrian intermediary, German supplier, Italian customer
- 01
Test each condition against the facts
Describe the parties, their VAT numbers and who hires the carrier. azta checks each condition against the VAT Directive and the Austrian, German and Italian VAT acts, with every step cited.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the Austrian provision
Open the national rule on triangulation in the reader, in German as enacted, with its in-force status. The invoice wording comes from the provision itself, not a summary.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Check the edge cases
Ask what changes if the customer collects, or if your client also holds a German VAT number. azta cites the provisions and the Court of Justice decisions on each point.
Cited research· Free - 04
Draft the note and the invoice text
Ask for a short client note with the conclusion, the conditions and the exact invoice references. Edit it in Canvas before it goes out.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A note on whether triangulation applies and the wording the Austrian invoice needs
What you get
A note on whether triangulation applies and the wording the Austrian invoice needs
Client note · draft
Valve deliveries from Nuremberg to Verona: triangulation
Conclusion. On the facts you gave us, the simplification for triangular transactions applies. You do not need to register for VAT in Italy for these deliveries, provided the invoices and your recapitulative statement are prepared as set out below.
Why it applies. Three businesses identified in three Member States take part, the valves travel directly from Germany to Italy, and you arrange the transport using your Austrian VAT number. The transport therefore belongs to the German manufacturer’s supply to you.
What your invoice must show. Your VAT number, the customer’s Italian VAT number, a statement that the customer is liable for the VAT and the reference to a triangular transaction required by Austrian law. No VAT is charged. Please send us the first invoice before it is issued: a missing reference cannot safely be corrected afterwards.
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
- 36
- Capacity at your rate
- €5,400
- More triangulation checks a quarter
- 3
- Return on Pro
- 16.7×
- 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 demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- RIS
- Gesetze im Internet
- Normattiva
What stays with you
- Confirming who hires the carrier and which VAT number your client quotes.
- Checking the invoice template before the first delivery.
- The conclusion and the advice you sign.
Frequently asked questions
- What if our client is also registered in Germany?
- Tell azta which VAT number the client uses for the purchase. The answer depends on it, and azta cites the provisions and Court of Justice decisions on that point.
- Does it give the exact national invoice wording?
- It cites the national provision that sets the wording and opens it in the original language, so you take the requirement from the law itself.
- Does azta file the recapitulative statement?
- No. It researches, cites and drafts. Your client or your firm files the statement as usual.
