OltranoVAT and reverse charge
Reverse charge applied wrongly is not a formatting mistake — it is unbilled tax that you owe. So it is applied only when all three conditions are genuinely met, and never on a guess.
How the tax is worked out
Tax is calculated per rate, from the taxable base, and then summed — not line by line and rounded each time. This is what EN 16931 requires, and it is the reason a document with twenty lines at 19% comes to the same figure here as in your accountant's software. Set your default rate in Settings → Tax; a line can override it, and an item can carry its own.
A rate of zero and "no rate" are two different things. Zero means exempt and appears on the document and in the VAT return as a zero-rated line. No rate means "use the organisation default". We keep them apart because your VAT return does.
Reverse charge, automatically
Switch on automatic reverse charge in Settings → Tax and it is applied only when all of this is true at once: the customer is a company, in a different EU member state than you, and their VAT number is verified in VIES. Miss any one and the tax stays on, because any one of them missing means the tax is genuinely due.
The verification is a real call to the EU VIES service, and we keep the date it passed on the customer record. You can re-check from the customer screen at any time.
What goes on the document
A reverse-charge invoice shows no tax amount, both VAT numbers, and a line of wording that says why. The wording is yours — set it in Settings → Tax so it matches what your accountant uses. The EN 16931 XML carries the right category code, which is what the receiving system reads.
Customers who are exempt for another reason
Mark the customer as tax exempt on their record. Every document for them is issued with no tax, whatever the item rate says, and the exemption note you configured goes on the document. Use this for export, for diplomatic exemptions and for domestic exemptions — not for reverse charge, which has its own rules above.
Prices that include tax
Retail businesses usually quote gross. Switch prices include VAT on, per organisation or per document, and the net and tax are derived back out of the gross. The arithmetic runs in that direction on purpose: deriving gross from net and rounding can leave you a cent away from the price on the shelf.
Questions people actually ask
Why is reverse charge not applied to my EU customer?
One of the three conditions is not met: the customer is marked as a person rather than a company, they are in your own country, or their VAT number has not passed a VIES check. The customer screen shows which.
VIES says my customer is invalid but I know the number is right.
VIES queries the member state live, and some national databases go down for hours at a time. The check can be repeated; it is never cached as a failure.
Can I apply reverse charge manually anyway?
Yes, per document. The automatic rule is a safety net, not a cage — but if you override it, the decision is yours and the audit trail says so.
Next
- Send your first invoice in about five minutesWhat to fill in before you issue anything, and what happens when you do.
- EN 16931 and Peppol, explained for people who sellWhat the standard actually requires, and what your country adds on top.