Like all EU businesses, PDFlib GmbH’s invoicing and VAT handling is governed by EU law:

Customers from non-EU countries will not be charged VAT.

Customers from Germany will be charged 19% VAT (MwSt.).

Customers from all other EU countries must provide their VAT identification number to avoid VAT being added to the invoice.

PDFlib GmbH offers software for digital download and sells licenses which grant the right to use these software packages. In EU tax terms, PDFlib GmbH provides »electronically supplied services«. According to our General License and Support Conditions we offer licenses and support services only to business customers.

According to article 196, 205 of VAT directive 2006/112/EC these services are taxed in the country where the customer resides rather than where the supplier is located. VAT will be accounted for by the customer under the reverse charge (self-assessment) mechanism.

For this reason, PDFlib GmbH needs the customer’s VAT identification number to decide whether we must charge VAT or whether the customer himself will account for the VAT. If the customer does not provide a valid VAT number PDFlib GmbH must add VAT to the invoice amount. In this case the customer is entitled to deduct input VAT (or to a refund of the excess if the input VAT exceeds his output VAT).

For more information please see the Web site of the European Commission at ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/traders/e-commerce.

Since PDFlib GmbH must validate the supplied VAT ID against the contact data we need the following information:

VAT ID

company name

legal form of the company (e.g. Ltd, BV, Plc, SA, Sarl, Srl, SpA)

postal address under which the company is registered

PDFlib GmbH must add VAT to the invoice amount if the customer didn't provide enough information for successful VAT ID validation.