If you are a contractor carrying out work on a property, under certain conditions you will only have to charge 6% vAT % to the end customer. But beware, because since 1 July 2022, the rules of the game have been edited.
Which renovation works?
There are three conditions that must be met simultaneously before you can invoice at 6% vAT %.
1️⃣ The property must be primarily a private residence. It is not a problem if your customer uses the home, for example, 1/3 for his self-employed activities, but it should never be more than half.
2️⃣ The home must be older than 10 years. The customer himself must not have lived there for 10 years, the date that counts is the first time the house was occupied.
3️⃣ These are the works invoiced to you as the owner or renter of the property.
Before 1 July 2022
Of course, as a business owner, you never know for sure whether the property is effectively over 10 years old or whether it is mainly used privately.
This used to be solved (before 1July 2022) by having your customer sign an attestation. That attestation was a declaration that the property was older than 10 years and mainly used privately. Keeping the signed attestation good as a self-employed person was the message, as you had to be able to present it during a vAT inspection.
From 1 July 2022
The separate attestation no longer applies, which is a relief.
It has been replaced by a notification on your sales invoice, which reads as follows:
“VAT rate: In the absence of a written dispute within a term of one month from the receipt of the invoice, the customer is deemed to acknowledge that (1) the works are performed on a dwelling whose first occupation took place in a calendar year at least 10 years prior to the date of the first invoice relating to those works, (2) the dwelling, after the performance of those works, is used exclusively or mainly as a private dwelling, and (3) the works are provided and invoiced to a final consumer. If at least one of those conditions is not met, the normal VAT rate of 21% will apply and the customer will be liable to pay the taxes, interest and fines due in respect of those conditions.”
Your customer then has a term of one month from receipt of the sales invoice to dispute the application of the 6% vAT rate. If the customer does not do so, then it is also immediately his responsibility if the conditions for the reduced vAT rate turn out not to be fulfilled after all.
