🇨🇿 Czech Republic — Invoicing Services to the EU in 2026

This guide is in English, for a self-employed individual (OSVČ) or a limited company (s.r.o.) based in the Czech Republic who supplies services to customers in other EU countries. Whether you are a developer, a designer, or provide any other service, sooner or later a foreign client turns up.

Quick answer

For VAT you always have to fix the place of supply, which decides which country's VAT applies and how the document is reported. Under the basic rule: a service to a non-business customer has its place of supply in the Czech Republic (you invoice with Czech VAT if you are a payer); a service to a business customer has its place of supply in the customer's country, so you issue the invoice without VAT under the reverse-charge mechanism with the note "Daň odvede zákazník" ("The customer accounts for the tax"). Even a non-VAT payer must handle this: supplying a service to an EU business makes you an identified person (identifikovaná osoba), with an obligation to register and file an EC Sales List (souhrnné hlášení).

Main takeaways

Who this applies to

OSVČ and s.r.o. in the Czech Republic supplying services to EU customers. Goods have different rules — see invoicing customers abroad. This article assumes an ordinary B2B service supplied to a VAT-registered EU business unless stated otherwise.

The basic rule for the place of supply

Two things matter: what the service is and who you supplied it to. The basic rule: if you provide a service that falls under it (i.e. not one of the exceptions) to a taxable person (a business — an individual or a company), the place of supply is where the recipient has its seat (its country). The exception within the exception: if you supply to a branch, the place of supply is where the branch is.

Exceptions to the basic rule

Before you determine the place of supply, work out what kind of service it is. Some services never follow the basic rule.

Services that never follow the basic rule

1. Services connected to immovable property — construction and trades, but also valuers, estate agents, architects, planners, site supervision, and letting or accommodation. The place of supply is where the property is, under that country's rules — which can mean registering for VAT in another EU state.
2. Passenger transport — place of supply is where the transport takes place; if it crosses several states, the place of supply is in each of them.
3. Cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific, educational, and entertainment services — including admission to events and organising educational events (congresses, seminars). Place of supply is where the event is held. Educational services have many VAT variants (online vs live, public vs bespoke) — worth checking with a tax adviser. If you only act as a lecturer and invoice a company, the basic rule applies.
4. Catering services — place of supply is where they are physically provided (special rules apply on board ships, aircraft, and trains within the EU).
5. Hire of a means of transport — short-term vs long-term is distinguished; short-term is where the vehicle is physically handed over.

Services that leave the basic rule only when supplied to a non-business

1. Intermediary services to a non-taxable person — place of supply follows the underlying service.
2. Transport of goods for a non-taxable person — where the relevant leg takes place.
3. Services relating to transport of goods, and valuation of / work on movable tangible property, for a non-taxable person — where the work is physically carried out.
4. Telecommunications, broadcasting, and electronically supplied services to a non-taxable person — in practice mostly electronically supplied services (web hosting, software, images, e-books, online courses). These have their own regime and let you remit VAT in another member state via the One Stop Shop (OSS).

How to work through the basic rule

If your service is not one of the exceptions, you apply the basic rule — and the key question is who the recipient is.

Who is the recipient?

A taxable person is typically a business — VAT payer or not. A non-taxable person is typically a consumer. Non-profits and state bodies can be either, so ask. If you cannot clearly establish that the customer is a taxable person, treat them as a non-taxable person.

Situation 1: my customer is not a business

Under the basic rule, the place of supply is where the supplier has its seat — so, for a Czech business, the Czech Republic. You issue the invoice as you would for a Czech customer. A VAT payer invoices with Czech VAT; a non-payer or identified person invoices without VAT, does not report it in the EC Sales List, and counts the fee toward the Czech VAT registration turnover limit (CZK 2,000,000 per calendar year, with an upper CZK 2,536,500 line that triggers immediate VAT payer status). The same applies if you do not know whether the customer is a taxable person.

Situation 2: my customer is a business

Under the basic rule, the place of supply is in the country where the recipient has its seat (or, for a branch, where the branch is). The obligation to account for VAT there shifts to the customer — but you should meet a few conditions.

Who accounts for the VAT?

If your business customer is a taxable person established in another EU member state, the place of supply is there and so is the VAT obligation — which passes to the customer. You should:

1. Check the customer has a valid EU VAT ID in VIES. Pick the customer's country, enter their VAT number, and if it checks out, put the VAT ID on the invoice.
2. Issue the invoice under the reverse-charge mechanism (přenesená daňová povinnost), at zero VAT, with the mandatory sentence.
3. Report the supply in the EC Sales List (souhrnné hlášení) and, if applicable, in the VAT return.

Example. Tobias is a freelance graphic designer supplying a German digital agency. He applies the basic rule; because the customer is a business, the place of supply is the customer's seat — Germany. Even though Tobias is not a VAT payer, at the moment he supplies the service he becomes an identified person and must report the supply in the EC Sales List.

What your invoice and invoicing tool need to do

For an EU service invoice under the basic rule:

• Full recipient details, including the EU VAT ID (Intra-Community VAT number), verified in VIES
• The invoice currency — any currency, with the CZK conversion for VAT using the Czech National Bank rate at the date of supply (or the last day of the period for longer supplies)
• Reverse charge, which produces the invoice at zero VAT with the reverse-charge mention. Use the Czech "Daň odvede zákazník" or the English "Reverse charge" — it has to match an official EU VAT Directive language version word for word, so do not paraphrase it. An English-language invoice does not need the Czech version.
• The transaction code for the EC Sales List, if you export it yourself — code 3 for services

Our free Czech invoice generator does the invoice side: set the client's country to their EU member state and it adds the reverse-charge note and sets VAT to zero, pick your invoice currency, and put your IBAN and SWIFT in the payment-details field. A free Podnikio account adds a saved client list with stored VAT IDs, a history of every cross-border invoice, and a connected accountant who handles the identified-person registration, the EC Sales List, and the VAT return.

Frequently asked questions

Who is an identified person and what are their duties?

If you are not a VAT payer, the moment you supply a service to the EU you become an identified person (identifikovaná osoba). You must register at the tax office (electronically, on the prescribed form) within 15 days of supplying the service — not of issuing the invoice. Invoices in reverse charge for basic-rule services to EU customers with a valid EU VAT ID do not count toward the Czech VAT registration turnover limit. An identified person reports the supply in the EC Sales List. If the identified person has no received supplies (no purchases of services or goods from abroad), only issued invoices, they do not file a VAT return — just the EC Sales List with transaction code 3. A VAT return can still be filed voluntarily.

What if I am already a VAT payer?

Besides the EC Sales List, you report the supply in the VAT return on line 21. Services supplied under reverse charge to the EU are not shown in the domestic control statement (kontrolní hlášení). Both a VAT payer and an identified person must keep VAT records under § 100 of the VAT Act.

What do EU VAT ID formats look like?

The tax ID (VAT ID / VATIN) format differs by country. A full VAT ID is the two-letter country code (the Code column) followed by the national number — and it is only that national number that the columns below describe:

• Format — the shape of the national number. A digit stands for any digit; X marks a position that is a check character or a fixed letter (explained in Note).
• Length — how many characters the national number has, not counting the country code. So a German number is 9 characters here, or 11 if you also count the leading DE.
• Note — common variants. These are approximate; treat the table as orientation only.

Only EU member states can be verified in VIES — the non-EU rows (Norway, Switzerland, the UK, the Balkans, etc.) are listed for recognition, not for VIES lookup. Always confirm the customer's actual number in VIES rather than relying on the pattern.

Contact us

If you are unsure how a specific cross-border service affects your VAT registration or reporting, feel free to reach out. We offer a free initial consultation.