About PlainVAT

What we publish

PlainVAT is a plain-English reference for EU and UK VAT. We track the standard, reduced, super-reduced, and zero rates for all 27 EU member states plus the United Kingdom (post-Brexit). We also publish a reverse-charge decision engine for B2B cross-border transactions and a live VAT-number validator that hits the European Commission's VIES service (and HMRC's checker for GB-prefix numbers).

Who publishes this

PlainVAT is a small independent publisher of data-reference portals. PlainVAT is a one-operator organisation. We use editorial-pipeline tooling (including AI assistance and automation in drafting) to structure content, and the operator performs editorial review on every published page before it ships. Editorial disclosure: this site's prose is drafted with automation assistance; the operator is responsible for accuracy review prior to publication. We do not have a fabricated editorial process, pseudonymous staff, or fake credentials. The operator is the publisher. See our methodology page for the full editorial process.

Our data sources

The data source feeds for PlainVAT are listed in the methodology page. Every rate row on this site links back to where the data comes from.

The rates and rules on this site come from three primary sources:

  • European Commission Taxation and Customs Union - per-country VAT rate registry and the live VIES validation service.
  • Eurostat - historical VAT-rate harmonisation tables for cross-checking.
  • HMRC (gov.uk) - UK VAT guidance and the UK VAT-number checker, used for GB-prefix numbers since VIES no longer covers them post-Brexit.

Each rate row on the site links back to the originating authority page. We refresh on a 180-day cadence and faster when a known change lands (e.g. Slovakia's 20%-to-23% standard-rate increase in January 2025, Finland's 24%-to-25.5% standard-rate increase in September 2024).

What we are not

PlainVAT is an information reference, not a tax advisory. Disclaimer: This information is for general reference only and should not be considered legal, tax, or financial advice. Nothing on this site is professional advice. Use it to orient yourself for informational purposes, then confirm specifics with your accountant or the relevant authority for your transaction.

Corrections

Spot something wrong? Use the public corrections pathway, email hello@plainvat.com, or the contact form. We verify a report against the named source and correct confirmed issues in the canonical data or pipeline so all affected pages update together. Material fixes are listed on the data changelog.

Why we built it

Cross-border VAT is one of the most common questions a freelancer or small business sends to their accountant. The mechanics are not conceptually hard, but they are scattered across the EU VAT Directive, 27 national tax authority sites, HMRC notices, and a handful of dense official guidance pages. Anyone trying to answer "if I am in Berlin invoicing Dublin, do I charge VAT?" ends up reading material written for tax professionals, not for the person sending the invoice. We built PlainVAT so the answer is one click away with the legal basis visible alongside it, then any reader can drill down to the underlying source.

Limitations

PlainVAT may not reflect rate or rule changes filed after our last refresh. Rates are shown as national standard/reduced percentages, reduced-rate scope (which specific goods or services qualify) can vary by country and by year, and we summarize the general case rather than every product-level carve-out. The reverse-charge engine covers the common patterns (intra-EU B2B, distance selling, post-Brexit UK trade); real-estate, passenger transport, telecommunications, and triangulation chains follow their own place-of-supply rules and are flagged rather than computed. All monetary figures on this site are shown in the currency native to the country being described (EUR for euro-area members, GBP for the United Kingdom); the VAT calculator does not convert between currencies.

Independence

PlainVAT does not accept payment to alter, remove, or feature data. We do not endorse any commercial VAT software, accountancy practice, or filing service. The site is monetised by display advertising served through Google AdSense; advertising has no influence over which countries we cover, which schemes we explain, or how we characterise the rules. Our methodology page details the full editorial pipeline so anyone can audit the boundary between editorial and commercial.