How a mis-configured VAT setup was costing a Berlin founder €14,000 per year, and how we fixed it in one quarter

Max K. runs a B2B analytics tool from Berlin, with customers in eleven EU countries and a Luxembourg entity handling his European billing. For two years he managed the VAT himself: the registrations, the OSS returns, the lot. It mostly felt fine.

"Mostly fine" is the expensive state of a VAT setup. Errors in indirect tax rarely announce themselves. They compound quietly until someone looks.

The first review

His handover to our partner fiduciaire started the way every mandate does: with a full map of the supply chain. Who sells what, to whom, from where, under which registration. Three findings came out of the first pass.

• B2B sales reported like B2C. A large share of his business customers had been run through the OSS return instead of the reverse charge, so VAT was being paid where none was due.
• An invisible supply chain. Cloud and licensing purchases from non-EU providers had never been self-assessed, an omission that builds silent liability rather than savings.
• Input VAT left on the table. Two years of recoverable VAT on tooling, subscriptions and services had simply never been claimed.

One quarter to clean

The fix ran inside a single quarter: registrations corrected, past returns amended where the rules allow, the reverse charge applied where it always should have been, and a recovery claim filed for the input VAT that was still within reach.

Max's involvement across the whole quarter came to two calls and one folder of exports.

Where things stand

The corrected setup returns about €14,000 per year to the business compared with the old one. Filings now run on a quiet quarterly rhythm through the fiduciaire, and pricing decisions are finally made on real margins.