Newsletter 1-2004, April 21, 2004

News from the German meeting industry: Recommendations for meeting planners

You will find checklists and sources for meeting planners on our redesigned website www.gcb.de. Moreover, in this section we will discuss questions that arise in your daily work and are not so easy to answer. What interests you? What problems do you face when planning meetings? Write to gazzetto@gcb.de ! We will try to find answers and investigate. Here's the topic of this newsletter:

Value Added Tax and VAT refunds for international planners and attendees

The following rule applies to the payment of Value Added Tax:
The place of performance is decisive. So, if Germany is the venue of the meeting, congress or incentive, German VAT will be payable on all services rendered in Germany.

Different regulations apply to invoices in each country - depending on the national VAT laws.

Around the globe, the Geman Chambers Abroad can give extensive and very competent information. You will find all contacts on www.ahk.de. The website offers a detailed list of all contact persons, especially for legal and fiscal matters. Some of the German Chambers Abroad also act as reclaim agencies, i.e. they can help you get a VAT refund.

An example for your information:
A Swiss convention agency organises a congress in Germany. What VAT has to be invoiced with the attendance fees?

If a Swiss company does business in Germany (organies a congress) and writes invoices, the tax debtor (person liable to pay taxes) will be the beneficiary of the service (the attendee) and not the provider of the service (association/agency). This applies according to 13B of the Swiss VAT Act.

For the organiser - as the service provider - the procedure is quite simple: He writes a bill without VAT, in other words net. The beneficiary (attendee) must then pay tax to the German state but can of course claim this as a tax prepayment.

From 2004 you need to make the following note on each attendee invoice:
The tax debtor is the beneficiary according to 13B  VAT Act.

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