VAT on design or advice for a building across the border: where do you pay the VAT?

Advice or design for a building abroad is taxed in the country where the building is. That is what article 6b of the Dutch VAT Act says. It does not matter where your client is based.

For most services to a business client in the EU you put reverse-charged VAT on the invoice. For a building or site that rule does not apply. Your client may then pay the VAT in his own country, or you may have to pay foreign VAT yourself. And if you work for a foreign client on a building in the Netherlands, you simply charge Dutch VAT.

In this article

1. Which VAT rule normally applies when you advise a client abroad?
2. When is your design or advice taxed where the building is?
3. Which assignments of an engineering firm fall under it, and which do not?
4. Who pays the VAT in the country where the building is?
5. What applies if your client is a private individual?
6. What do you put on the invoice and in your records?
7. How do you avoid mistakes on a project across the border?

Which VAT rule normally applies when you advise a client abroad?

Normally your service is taxed in the country where your business client is established. The law says that the place of a service for a business is the place where that business is established (Dutch VAT Act 1968, article 6(1)). This is called the general rule for business services.

If your client is a business in another EU country, he calculates the VAT himself in his own country. You send an invoice without VAT stating reverse-charged VAT (btw verlegd). You report the service in your VAT return and in the EC sales list (opgaaf ICP), a list of your services to clients in other EU countries (Belastingdienst, calculating VAT on services to customers in other EU countries).

How you enter those amounts in the return is covered in a separate article on the VAT return and the EC sales list (filing a VAT return, including reverse-charged VAT and the EC sales list). This piece is about the exception that often applies to engineers and technical advisers: work that concerns a building or site.

When is your design or advice taxed where the building is?

When your service relates to immovable property. Immovable property is land and everything firmly attached to it, such as a building, a bridge or a foundation. The law specifically mentions services aimed at preparing or coordinating construction work, such as those of architects and of firms that supervise the execution of the work. The place of such a service is the place where the immovable property is located (Dutch VAT Act 1968, article 6b).

The Belastingdienst puts services relating to immovable property on its list of excepted services to businesses. For those services different rules apply to the country where the service is taxed (Belastingdienst, calculating VAT on excepted services). The usual reverse-charge rule for business clients in the EU then does not apply.

It works both ways. A structural engineer who does the calculations for a hall in Germany supplies a service taxed in Germany. A Belgian investor who hires a Dutch firm for the building services design of an office in Utrecht gets an invoice with Dutch VAT. The building is then in the Netherlands.

Which assignments of an engineering firm fall under it, and which do not?

It concerns work on or for one specific building or site. Think of structural calculations for a particular building, the design of the building services in a particular property, construction management or site supervision, and energy advice for an existing building. The article of the law expressly mentions preparing and coordinating construction work and supervising its execution (Dutch VAT Act 1968, article 6b).

Article 6b assumes immovable property with a fixed location. Advice that does not concern one specific building or site has no such location. Examples are a standard design that the client uses in several places, a general study of a construction method, and a calculation tool or software. For such work the general rule is the obvious one: taxed where the business client is established.

The European rules set out in an implementing regulation which services exactly are connected with immovable property. That text was not checked for this article. For a borderline case, such as a feasibility study for three possible locations, there is therefore no fixed rule here. The Belastingdienst tool shows for each service where it is taxed and who reports the VAT (Belastingdienst, I supply services in and from abroad).

The boundary is not sharp in the professional literature either. A contribution in the journal EC Tax Review argues that the rule is intended for services that are genuinely bound to the location. For cross-border advice or valuations, the business client often cannot then recover the VAT through the ordinary deduction or reverse charge, but only through a refund claim afterwards. The author therefore argues for a strict interpretation (Pattikawa, 2026). That is a position, not a rule.

Who pays the VAT in the country where the building is?

That is decided by the country where the building is. Dutch law only says that the service is taxed there. Whether the client reports the VAT there himself, or whether you have to register there for VAT, is set out in the law of that country.

Germany is an example. For services from a business established abroad, the client owes the VAT if that client is a business or a legal entity (Umsatzsteuergesetz, section 13b(2) and (5)). If you work for a German contractor or developer on a building in Germany, that client pays the German VAT.

If the client in Germany is a private individual, for example someone having a house renovated, that reverse charge does not apply under the same section. You then owe the German VAT yourself. In practice that means a VAT registration in Germany. Other countries have their own rules. Check for each country what applies before you make the quote.

If the building is outside the EU, the service is taxed there and not in the Netherlands. If you supply a business outside the EU and the service is taxed there, you do not need to include it in your Dutch VAT return. You may still deduct the VAT on your costs for that work, because turnover taxed outside the EU also counts as taxable turnover (Belastingdienst, returns for services to customers outside the EU).

What applies if your client is a private individual?

Then too, the location of the building counts. Article 6b makes no distinction between business and private clients. Energy advice for a house in Belgium is therefore taxed in Belgium, even if the owner lives in the Netherlands.

For advice that does not concern a building, a different rule applies to a private client. If that private client lives outside the EU, advice from engineers and consultancy firms is taxed where he lives (Dutch VAT Act 1968, article 6i, item c). That is why the Belastingdienst also lists services by advisers and engineers among the excepted services to private clients (Belastingdienst, calculating VAT on excepted services).

If the private client lives in another EU country and the advice does not concern a building, the service is in most cases taxed in the Netherlands and you charge Dutch VAT (Belastingdienst, calculating VAT on services to customers in other EU countries).

What do you put on the invoice and in your records?

On the invoice for work on a building abroad you do not charge Dutch VAT. What must be on it depends on the country where the service is taxed and on who pays the VAT there. With a German business client, the client reports the VAT. If you have to pay foreign VAT yourself, you follow the rules of that country.

State the address or location of the project in the quote, the assignment and the invoice. This shows which immovable property your work relates to. That is the fact on which the place of the service rests. Also keep the drawings or the project number with the invoice.

If you are unsure how to enter the service in box 3b of the return or in the EC sales list, use the Belastingdienst tool. In it you choose the type of service and the country, and the tool shows where the service is taxed and who reports the VAT (Belastingdienst, I supply services in and from abroad).

How do you avoid mistakes on a project across the border?

Most mistakes arise when a firm uses the usual rule for business clients for work that concerns a building. The invoice then says reverse-charged VAT, while the service is taxed in another country and you may have to report it there yourself. Four questions before you make the quote help.

1. Does the work concern one specific building or site? If so, where is it?
2. Is the client a business or legal entity, or a private individual? Check the VAT identification number.
3. Who pays the VAT in the country of the building: the client or you?
4. Does the assignment combine work on a specific building with work that is not, such as a calculation tool? Then agree a price for each part.

The last question is practical. An assignment with one fixed price for everything makes it hard to show which part is taxed where. A price per part avoids a discussion afterwards, with the client and with the Belastingdienst.

Sources

• Dutch VAT Act 1968 (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), articles 6, 6b and 6i, in force from 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
• Belastingdienst, Calculating VAT on services to customers in other EU countries (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• Belastingdienst, Calculating VAT on excepted services (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• Belastingdienst, I supply services in or obtain services from abroad, what about VAT? (tool, in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• Belastingdienst, Filing a VAT return when you supply services to customers in non-EU countries (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• Umsatzsteuergesetz (Germany), section 13b, recipient of the service as the person liable for the tax, accessed 31 October 2026. gesetze-im-internet.de
• Pattikawa, H. (2026). Territorial formalism and structural neutrality: reassessing Article 47 VAT Directive in light of the economic-consumption principle. EC Tax Review, 35(4), 236-241. doi.org