VAT Rates in Europe Compared: Standard, Reduced and Zero

Standard, reduced, super-reduced, zero: what the four labels mean

The standard rate is the default: it applies to everything that has not been explicitly placed in another band, which in practice is most of what a consumer buys. EU law sets a floor under it — a member state may not go below 15 percent — and the countries in the table sit between 17 and 23 percent, so the room for competition on the headline number is narrower than people assume. Switzerland and, since leaving the EU VAT area, the United Kingdom are not bound by that floor; Switzerland's 8.1 percent, raised from 7.7 percent in January 2024, is the reason it stands out.

Reduced rates are the interesting part, and the part most often misread. They do not apply to a sector but to defined categories listed in law — a specific kind of foodstuff, a specific medical device, a particular class of accommodation or transport — so two products that feel similar to a shopper can sit in different bands, and the same product can be reduced in one country and standard in the next. Below 5 percent the vocabulary changes: rates like France's 2.1 percent, Luxembourg's 3 percent and the 4 percent of Italy and Spain are called super-reduced and exist largely as historical exceptions, while a zero rate, used by Ireland and the United Kingdom on categories including many foods, means the buyer pays nothing but the seller still recovers the VAT it paid on inputs — which is what makes it different from an exemption.

Which country's VAT do you actually charge?

This is the question hiding behind most searches for a rate table, and the answer for consumer sales inside the EU turns on a single threshold. Below EUR 10,000 of cross-border business-to-consumer sales per year, counted across the whole EU rather than country by country, a small seller may keep charging its own domestic rate. Above it, the rate that applies is the one where the customer is, which means the table below stops being trivia and becomes a pricing input — the same item sold to Luxembourg and to Portugal carries 17 and 23 percent respectively.

Registering in every country would be unmanageable, which is why the One Stop Shop exists: you register once, file one quarterly return in your own country, and the tax authority distributes the money to the others. Two situations sit outside all of this. Sales to a business customer in another EU country are normally reverse-charged, meaning you invoice without VAT and the buyer accounts for it, provided you have and check a valid VAT number. And sales to the United Kingdom or Switzerland are exports from the EU's point of view, with those countries' own import and registration rules applying instead.

How to read this table without getting burned

Rates carry an as-of date for a reason. The figures here are the 2026 reference year of the rate table this site's VAT calculator reads, and the recent history in the same data shows how much movement there is: Luxembourg cut its standard rate to 16 percent for 2023 and put it back to 17 percent from 2024, and Switzerland went from 7.7 to 8.1 percent in January 2024. A rate table that does not tell you when it was compiled is telling you nothing useful, and the safe habit is to treat any table, this one included, as a starting point and confirm the current figure with the tax authority before it goes into an invoice.

Two further caveats sit inside the table itself. National territories can diverge from the mainland rate — the Azores and Madeira apply lower rates than continental Portugal — and Switzerland's two lower figures are not a single ladder: the 2.6 percent is the reduced rate for goods such as food, books and medicines, while the 3.8 percent is a special rate for accommodation. Neither point changes the standard rate, but both change what you actually charge, which is the number that matters.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the same product carry a different rate in two countries?

Because EU law sets the menu of categories that may be reduced, and each member state decides which of them it actually reduces and by how much. Spain runs a single reduced rate of 10 percent plus a super-reduced 4 percent, Austria runs 13 and 10 percent, Ireland runs 13.5 and 9 percent alongside a zero rate — three different structures over the same catalogue. The only reliable way to place a specific product is the national tax authority's own category list.

Do I charge VAT when I sell to a business in another EU country?

Usually not. Business-to-business sales across an EU border are normally reverse-charged: you invoice without VAT and the buyer accounts for it in its own country at its own rate. The condition is that the customer gives you a valid VAT number, that you verify it and that your invoice states the reverse charge. If the number does not check out, treat the sale as one to a consumer and charge accordingly.

Are the United Kingdom and Switzerland still part of EU VAT?

No, and they never sat there in the same way. Switzerland has always been outside the EU VAT system and runs its own, currently at a standard 8.1 percent. The United Kingdom left the EU VAT area and keeps a broadly similar tax at a standard 20 percent with a wide zero-rated list covering many foods and children's clothes. For a seller in the EU, both are export destinations, with the importing country's registration and threshold rules applying rather than the One Stop Shop.