VAT (Value Added Tax)

What are VAT rules?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax that is applied to nearly all goods and services that are bought and sold for use or consumption in the EU.

The EU has standard rules on VAT, but these rules may be applied differently in each EU country. In most cases, you have to pay VAT on all goods and services at all stages of the supply chain including the sale to the final consumer. This includes from the beginning to the end of a production process, e.g. buying components, transport, assembly, provisions, packaging, insurance and shipping to the final consumer.

Although VAT is charged throughout the EU, each EU country is responsible for setting its own rates. You can consult the rates that currently apply in the table below. You should check the latest rates with the VAT authority of your country.

List of VAT rates applied in EU member countries

Country code	Member State	Standard rate	Reduced rate	Super reduced rate	Parking rate
AT	Austria	20	10 / 13	-	13
BE	Belgium	21	6 / 12	-	12
BG	Bulgaria	20	9	-	-
CY	Cyprus	19	5 / 9	-	-
CZ	Czechia	21	12 / 15	-	-
DE	Germany	19	7	-	-
DK	Denmark	25	0	-	-
EE	Estonia	22	9	-	-
EL	Greece	24	6 / 13	-	-
ES	Spain	21	10	-	-
FI	Finland	24	10 / 14	-	-
FR	France	20	5.5 / 10	2.1	-
HR	Croatia	25	5 / 13	-	-
HU	Hungary	27	5 / 18	-	-
IE	Ireland	23	9 / 13.5	-	-
IT	Italy	22	5 / 10	4	-
LT	Lithuania	21	5 / 9	-	-
LU	Luxembourg	17	8	3	14
LV	Latvia	21	5 / 12	-	-
MT	Malta	18	5 / 7	-	12
NL	Netherlands	21	9	-	-
PL	Poland	23	5 / 8	-	-
PT	Portugal	23	6 / 13	-	13
RO	Romania	19	5 / 9	-	-
SE	Sweden	25	6 / 12	-	-
SI	Slovenia	22	5 / 9.5	-	-
SK	Slovakia	20	10	-	-

A VAT Registration Number (VRN) is a unique identifier assigned to businesses registered for Value Added Tax (VAT). Companies are generally obligated to enter their VRN when purchasing items. In our system, we have 2 places for entering this number - in admin/payments/taxes there is a field Billing Company VAT and on the frontend, on the payment page (when paid on behalf of the company) there is a field VAT Number.

How VAT rules are applied in our platform

VAT rules are used by default in our platform if the user is paying on behalf of the company on the payment page.

All individuals are paying taxes that are set up in admin/payments/taxes without exception. If you pay as an individual you don’t need to enter the VRN of your company.

We can validate only the VRN of EU companies. There are 2 main fields in our platform where this number can be entered - Billing Company VAT in admin/payments/taxes and VAT number on the payment page (for both exhibitors and visitors). Entering or not entering VAT number can affect the final price. We don’t validate the VAT number for non-EU companies.

In the admin panel the billing company location determines the home country for tax purposes. Let's say it is set as Czech Republic.

The following rules below are applied to both custom and default taxes that are set up on this page admin/payments/taxes.

Setting Disable VAT rules is turned off

Billing Company	Paying company	Note	Current behaviour	Changes to make
Non-EU “A country”	EU “B country”	-	Paying company entered VAT number: tax is calculated Paying company doesn’t entered VAT number: tax is calculated	The tax should be zero in any case
Non-EU “A country”	Non-EU “B country”	-	The tax is not calculated.	No changes
EU “A country”	EU “B country”	VAT is entered for Biling company	Paying company entered VAT number: tax is not calculated Paying company doesn’t entered VAT number: tax is calculated	No changes
EU “A country”	EU “B country”	VAT is not entered for Biling company	Paying company entered VAT number: tax is calculated Paying company doesn’t entered VAT number: tax is calculated	The tax should be zero in any case
EU “A country”	Non-EU “B country”	The behavior is consistent regardless of whether the VAT number for the billing country is provided	The tax is not calculated.	No changes
The billing and paying companies are both from the same non-EU country with custom tax applied. “A country” and “A country”		-	The tax is not calculated.	The tax should be the one set in the admin panel.
The billing and paying companies are both from the same EU country. “A country” and “A country”		The behavior is consistent regardless of whether the VAT number is provided by billing and paying company	The tax is calculated	No changes

Setting Disable VAT rules is turned on. Custom tax is set up. NO VAT rules.

Billing Company	Paying company	Current behaviour	Changes to make
Non-EU “A country”	EU “B country”	The custom tax is calculated.	No changes
Non-EU “A country”	Non-EU “B country”	The custom tax is not calculated.	The custom tax should be calculated.
EU “A country”	EU “B country”	The custom tax is calculated.	No changes
EU “A country”	Non-EU “B country”	The custom tax is not calculated.	The custom tax should be calculated.
The billing and paying companies are both from the same non-EU country with custom tax applied. “A country” and “A country”		The custom tax is not calculated.	The custom tax should be calculated.
The billing and paying companies are both from the same EU country. “A country” and “A country”		The custom tax is calculated.	No changes

There is a setting in admin/payments/taxes Disable VAT rules. If it is applied, all companies will pay the tax set up in admin/payments/taxes regardless of whether the company is in the EU or not. The same goes for custom taxes as well.