- § 14c UStG requires a business to pay the excess VAT if it is incorrectly stated on an invoice
- Recent EU court ruling stated that the excess VAT is not owed if the recipient is a non-taxable end consumer
- The German tax authority has adopted this ruling in their guidelines
- The ruling does not apply if the recipient is a business, even if they are not eligible for input tax deduction
- The issuer of the invoice must correct the VAT amount if it is incorrectly stated for a business recipient
- The type of recipient (business or end consumer) must be clearly documented by the service provider
- The ruling does not apply to cases of incorrectly stated VAT without actual service provision by a non-business entity.
Source: umsatz-steuer-beratung.de
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
