How VAT is decided
The facts Steerd reads, the treatment it derives from them, and why a VAT ID from the wrong country is the expensive mistake.
Every invoice carries exactly one tax treatment, and it decides whether you charge VAT, at what rate, and which statutory sentence is printed.
You do not usually choose it. Steerd derives it.
The facts it reads
About you, from your invoicing profile: your country, whether you use the small-business scheme, and your VAT ID.
About your client, from their organization record: their country, and their VAT ID.
That is the whole input. Which is why an organization record with a missing or wrong country is not a cosmetic problem: it is a tax input.
What it derives
| Result | Roughly when |
|---|---|
| Domestic | A German client, and you are not a small business. 19% or 7%. |
| Small business | You use the Paragraph 19 scheme. No VAT on anything. |
| Reverse charge | A business client elsewhere in the EU with a valid VAT ID. |
| Third country | The client is outside the EU. |
| Exempt | The supply itself is exempt. You choose this and give a reason. |
The expensive mistake
A VAT ID whose country does not match the recorded country.
If a client is recorded as French but carries a German VAT ID, the naive reading is reverse charge, and reverse charge means you charge no VAT. If they are in fact established in Germany, German VAT was due. Nobody collects that 19% from your client afterwards. You pay it.
So Steerd checks that a VAT ID matches its country, warns while you type, and offers to fix the country in one click. At issue the warning becomes a refusal.
What is checked, and what is not
Steerd checks the shape: that a VAT ID looks like a valid ID for the country it claims. Each EU country has its own format, and the check knows all of them.
It does not ask the EU whether the ID exists or is currently valid. For a new or unfamiliar client, checking the ID against the EU's VIES service yourself is a minute well spent, and it is the difference between a plausible ID and a real one.
Note the one naming quirk: Greece is GR as a country and EL as a VAT prefix. Steerd handles
both; you are not typing it wrong.
Overriding
You can override the derived treatment. Treat that as a tax decision and not a formatting one, and remember the lines have to agree with whatever you choose. Steerd refuses to issue an invoice whose line rates contradict its treatment.