Correctly determine the VAT for groceries

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A VAT rate of 7% applies to most groceries in Germany. Depending on the consumption situation, 19% VAT may also be due.

At first glance, the situation with regard to the payment of VAT on food and beverages appears opaque. Oranges, for example, can be sold with a tax of 7% for the sale for orange juice, however, 19% VAT is due. If you sell the customer a sandwich to take away, you have to charge 7% VAT. Strictly speaking, if the customer consumes the sandwich in your shop, 19% VAT is due.

Which foods are eligible for VAT

In principle, the reduced tax rate of 7% applies to products that serve to secure a livelihood. With regard to VAT, all staple foods are considered to be living foods.

  • You can charge the reduced tax rate for milk and dairy products, fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs or cereal products.
  • Drinking water is one of them - but for all other drinks, be it beer and wine, but also juices or mineral water, 19% VAT has to be paid.
  • You also have to calculate 19% for mixed milk drinks if the milk content is less than 75 percent.
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  • The reduced tax rate also applies to fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates. Lobsters and lobsters, oysters and snails, on the other hand, have to be accounted for at the full tax rate.

The consumption situation also determines the amount of VAT

But even if a food is actually subject to the reduced tax rate, you may have to charge the full tax rate of 19% for it.

  • If you prepare the food and offer it for consumption in the sales room, the full VAT rate is due. The preparation, portioning and serving of food and drinks, provision and cleaning the premises and the dishes are classified as a service and therefore with 19% taxed.
  • In order to still be able to offer the customer uniform pricing and so that he does not always have to ask where he consumes the groceries he has purchased you can - for example as the owner of a bakery with a stand-up cafĂ© - make a mixed calculation based on both tax rates on a pro rata basis place. With the tax return to the Tax office you have to separate the two tax rates again.
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