Booking of services with a 0 percent tax rate
January 13, 2022 | 50,00 EUR | answered by Steuerberater Knut Christiansen
Dear Madam, dear Sir,
As a planning office, we occasionally need to inspect building records at the Building Rights Office as part of a permit planning process. In the city of Stuttgart, such inspections incur a fee. An invoice is issued, with no VAT shown. The same applies, for example, to obtaining permission for road use within a construction site.
We pay these costs upfront as an office and then invoice the client accordingly. The question is how to handle this from a tax perspective.
a) Do I need to show VAT in addition to the invoice amount to the client, or is the invoice issued as is?
b) If I also invoice the client without VAT, how should this be accounted for in the tax program? If I create a category under income for services with 0% VAT, I have several options to choose from:
- Tax-free supplies with input tax deduction
- Tax-free supplies without input tax deduction
- Other non-taxable supplies
- Deliveries according to § 13b UStG
- Non-taxable other services according to § 18b sentence 1 no. 2 UStG
- Sales as a small business owner according to § 19 UStG
Which option should be selected here?
Thank you for your response and best regards,
Ulrike Schwaller
Good day Mrs. Schwaller!
Thank you for your inquiry on frag-einen.com! Regarding your question, I would like to provide the following information.
The costs incurred are part of the planning services you provided. From a tax perspective, there is a principle that "ancillary services share the same fate as the main service." Therefore, if you pass on these costs to the customer as part of a planning service, you would have to charge VAT on them.
"A service is generally considered an ancillary service to a main service if it is incidental compared to the main service, closely related to it - in terms of economically justified rounding off and enhancement - and usually occurs in its wake. This is particularly the case when the service does not serve a separate purpose for the recipient, but rather serves as a means to take advantage of the provider's main service under optimal conditions. An ancillary service can be either a dependent delivery of goods or a dependent service." (Quote from Haufe.de)
Therefore, you do not need any further feedback for your 2nd question, correct?
I hope this answers your question, but feel free to ask any further questions at no cost.
I would like to remind you that this forum cannot replace a comprehensive and personalized tax consultation, but is primarily intended to provide an initial tax assessment. By adding or omitting relevant information, the legal assessment of your issue may vary.
Best regards,
Knut Christiansen
Tax consultant
