Invoicing a foreign company for a stay: reverse-charge VAT or plain Belgian VAT?

The email usually arrives on the day of departure, or a week later: "Could you put the invoice in our company's name? Our VAT number is DE123456789. Without VAT please, we are VAT-registered in Germany." The guest means well. For almost every other service they buy across a border — a consultant, a software subscription, a translation — their reasoning is correct. For an overnight stay it isn't. And if you follow it anyway, you'll be the one standing in front of an inspector with an invoice missing VAT you should have charged.

This article sets out the rule, explains why it exists, and gives you a standard answer for the guest who insists.

The rule: a stay is taxed where the bed stands

For VAT purposes, accommodation is a service connected with immovable property. Across the whole EU the same rule applies to such services: they are taxed in the country where the property is located. Not in the customer's country, not in the country the invoice is sent to. Your B&B is in Belgium, so every stay in your B&B is a Belgian transaction with Belgian VAT.

Who the customer is changes nothing:

• A Dutch company with a valid NL VAT number: Belgian VAT.
• A German freelancer booking a room for a trade fair: Belgian VAT.
• A Swiss or American company, i.e. outside the EU: Belgian VAT.
• A private guest from any country: Belgian VAT.

The reverse charge — the "VAT reverse charged" line on an invoice — exists for services whose place of supply is with the customer: consulting, IT, marketing, intermediation. There the supplier charges no VAT and the customer declares it in their own country. Accommodation is not in that category. There is no "choice" or "option" to reverse charge; the mechanism simply doesn't apply.

You already know the reverse charge from your own books, just from the other side: the Booking.com commission invoice arrives from the Netherlands without VAT, noting that the VAT is reverse charged to you. That's an intermediation service, and it follows the customer. Your invoice to the guest is an accommodation service, and it follows the property. Two different rules, both correct.

What that means for your invoice in practice

Your invoice to the foreign company therefore looks exactly like an invoice to a Belgian company:

• 12% VAT on the stay (the accommodation rate since 1 March 2026), plus whatever rates you normally apply to breakfast and extras.
• The amount goes into your periodic VAT return in the boxes for domestic transactions. It is not an intra-Community service.
• It does not go into your EC sales list (the "intra-Community statement"). That list is only for services and supplies where VAT is actually reverse charged to the customer. Accommodation doesn't belong there, even with a foreign VAT number on the invoice.

Are you under the small business exemption scheme (annual turnover below €25,000)? Then you charge VAT to nobody, the foreign company included, and you put the same wording on the invoice as always: "Special exemption scheme for small businesses". The customer gets no VAT to reclaim, but pays none either. For them the outcome is the same as a reverse-charged invoice; only the reason differs.

"But then I can't deduct the VAT" — you can, by another route

The guest is right about one thing: they want to recover the VAT on their hotel costs. They can, just not through your invoice.

A business from another EU member state reclaims Belgian VAT through the electronic refund procedure that exists across the EU. They file the claim through the tax portal of their own country, which forwards it to the Belgian administration. Claims can be quarterly or annual, minimum amounts apply, and the claim for a calendar year must be filed by 30 September of the following year. What they need for it is precisely a correct invoice with Belgian VAT, made out to the company. An invoice without VAT is useless to them: there is nothing to reclaim.

For companies outside the EU a similar procedure exists, but only for countries with which Belgium has a reciprocity arrangement. A Swiss or Norwegian company can usually reclaim; for many other countries the Belgian VAT simply remains a cost. That's annoying for the customer, but it changes nothing about what you have to do.

It pays to have a standard sentence ready, in Dutch, English, French and German. Something like:

"Accommodation is taxed in the country where the property is located, so our invoice always shows Belgian VAT. As a VAT-registered business you can reclaim that VAT through the EU refund procedure in your own country; our invoice contains all the details you need for that."

Friendly, short and correct. In our experience that almost always closes the discussion: the guest didn't want to be right, they wanted their VAT back.

What must be on the invoice

The mandatory details are the same as for any invoice, but a foreign accounts department is extra strict about them, because it attaches the invoice to its refund claim:

• A sequential number and the invoice date.
• Your full name or trade name, address and BE VAT number.
• The company's full name and address, plus its VAT number. The latter is not decisive for the tax (you charge Belgian VAT anyway), but without it their refund claim won't get through.
• A clear description: number of nights, arrival and departure dates, room or room type, and the name of the guest who stayed. Foreign tax authorities want to see that it was a business stay by an employee.
• The taxable amount per VAT rate, the VAT amount per rate and the total.
• The tourist tax shown separately if you pass it on, just as on your domestic invoices.

An invoice may be drawn up in English or German; for a foreign customer that's actually better. Amounts in euro. Also: check the VAT number in VIES before you create the invoice. A mistyped or made-up number on your invoice is your problem, not the guest's.

And Peppol? The Belgian e-invoicing obligation applies between Belgian VAT-registered businesses. To a foreign company you can simply send a PDF. If a guest asks for a company invoice at the last minute, it helps if you can produce it in the right language in a few clicks without reworking the booking.

Three situations that often go wrong

The guest asks for the invoice months later. Their accounts department needs it for the refund claim, which is sometimes only prepared in the autumn. You may issue an invoice as long as the booking exists and the amount is right; make sure the paid booking is easy to find. Keep the company details with the booking, not in your mailbox.

The booking came through Booking.com. The guest (or their employer) paid you, so you invoice the full amount of the stay to the company, with Belgian VAT. The commission Booking.com charges you is a separate flow between you and Booking.com and does not appear on the guest's invoice. Who gets the invoice is the payer: if the booking is in an employee's name but the company pays, the company goes on the invoice and the employee in the description.

The guest wants an invoice "without VAT" and threatens a bad review. Rare, but it happens. Stick to the rule, give your standard sentence and point to the refund procedure. A correct invoice is the best thing you can do for them; an incorrect one will be rejected in their own country just the same.

How to handle it in your PMS

What makes this topic awkward isn't the rule, it's that it always happens ad hoc: a guest at the desk, an email on Sunday evening, a VAT number on a scrap of paper. A good booking system takes the improvisation out of it:

• The company details (name, address, VAT number, country) belong with the booking, so the invoice picks them up automatically.
• The VAT number is checked against VIES the moment you enter it, not afterwards.
• The VAT rates are fixed per service (stay, breakfast, extras), so every invoice line is right without you thinking about it, even when you change the customer's country.
• The invoice is produced in the guest's language and sent as a PDF; for Belgian companies it also goes through Peppol.

That's exactly how BedFlow PMS works. You enter the company on the booking, the VAT number is checked against VIES, and the invoice comes out with Belgian VAT, in the right language, with the stay dates and the guest's name in the description. Foreign companies receive a PDF, Belgian companies a structured e-invoice via Peppol, and everything flows automatically to your accounting package. You never have to decide whether to "reverse charge", because for an overnight stay that question doesn't arise.

In short

• A stay is always taxed where the property stands. Foreign company or not: Belgian VAT, 12% on the stay.
• No reverse charge, no EC sales list. The only reverse-charged invoice in your books is the one from your booking platform to you.
• The foreign company recovers its VAT through the EU refund procedure in its own country, and for that it needs an invoice with VAT.
• Put the company's name, address and VAT number, the stay dates and the guest's name on the invoice; check the number in VIES.
• Peppol is not required for foreign customers; a PDF in the customer's language is enough.

Want your invoices to companies, Belgian or foreign, to be right automatically without checking the rules for every guest? Try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no credit card required. Rates are on the pricing page and the documentation explains how to set up company details and VAT rates per service.