VAT ID in field 40
The customer's VAT ID goes into field 40 for goods and services - the basis of the recapitulative statement.
Tax case EU business customers: tax‑free, the VAT ID in the line.
If you sell tax-free to companies in other EU countries, each of these bookings belongs in the VAT return and in the recapitulative statement. For that DATEV needs the right account and the customer's VAT ID.
Tax-free and with a VAT ID.
For the export an EU business customer is an order to another EU country that is tax-free in Shopware and carries a VAT ID whose country prefix matches the delivery country. What decides is that Shopware makes the order tax-free: an order with VAT books like a sale to private customers in the EU, even with a VAT ID. What is checked is the form of the number, not its validity with the Federal Central Tax Office.
| Purpose | SKR03 | SKR04 | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods: intra-community supply | 8125 | 4125 | § 4 No. 1b UStG, feeds VAT return and recapitulative statement (ZM) |
| Electronic service: reverse charge | 8336 | 4336 | § 3a (2) UStG, own ZM category |
A service is whatever has the product type digital in Shopware; consulting sold as a physical product books as goods. If the tax firm sets no account of its own on the tenant, the export books to these standard accounts and says so in the check report as a notice.
Goods and services apart
A mixed document becomes separate lines on two accounts that add up to the document value; the ZM reports both in categories of their own.
By document date
Even under cash basis the export books on the document date: for goods the ZM follows the invoice (§ 18a (8) UStG), for services the month of the service - the document date stands for it.
Two things that are easily overlooked.
Greece: EL and GR
In field 40 DATEV writes Greece as EL, in field 120 as GR. The export keeps the two code systems apart. A Greek VAT ID must therefore start with EL; with GR it does not match the delivery country and the document stops.
Small business
Under § 19 there is no intra-community supply: every tax-free sale books to the § 19 account, even with a VAT ID.
What gets asked about it.
What if a tax-free EU order has no matching VAT ID?
If the VAT ID is missing or its prefix does not match the delivery country, the order is neither reverse charge nor a domestic sale. The document stops and the check report names it - a guessed booking would otherwise end up in the recapitulative statement. Until then the run writes no file; if you need the rest of the month right away, exclude the order from the export and have that one document booked by hand.
Is the VAT ID checked with the tax office?
No. The export checks the form of the number and whether its prefix matches the delivery country. Only a query at the Federal Central Tax Office confirms whether it is valid - the export does not replace it.
The other tax cases
OSS
An account per destination country or a collective account with a tax key; plus the delivery threshold.
Cash-basis taxation
Booked on the real payment date, with payments and refunds; OSS and EU business customers on the invoice date.
Small businesses
Revenue under § 19 UStG without tax and without a tax key.
Outside the EU
Tax-free export, taxed deliveries outside the EU and the special case of Northern Ireland.
Credit notes and cancellations
General reversal or side switch, credit note, cancellation and the real refund.
Foreign currency
Amount in the document currency, rate and base amount in euros.