Guide

Buying office furniture as a business in the EU: VAT, invoicing and lead times

A business in one EU country buying from a supplier in another normally accounts for VAT itself under the reverse-charge mechanism: the supplier invoices at 0% VAT and the buyer declares it in their own return. To get that treatment you need a valid VAT identification number, entered at checkout, and it has to check out against the EU's own VIES database.

How reverse charge works here

WORK STYLE is operated by Green Spheres B.V., a Netherlands company, so orders are invoiced from the Netherlands. Tick the business option at checkout and enter your VAT ID. We validate it against VIES in real time. If it is valid and registered in another EU member state, the order is invoiced at 0% VAT and labelled as a reverse-charge supply on the invoice; you account for the VAT in your own return.

If the VAT ID is Dutch, Dutch VAT applies. If no valid VAT ID is given, the order is treated as a consumer sale and VAT is charged accordingly.

What you need before checkout

Have the registered company name, the VAT identification number in the format used by your member state, and the delivery address for each site. If the invoice address and the delivery address differ, enter both — the invoice follows the registered address.

  • Registered company name exactly as it appears on your VAT registration
  • A VAT ID that is active in VIES — recently issued numbers can take days to appear
  • A purchase order reference, if your finance process requires one on the invoice
  • Delivery contact and access notes per site

Lead times and how they are quoted

Lead time is stated on every product page, and it varies by manufacturer rather than being a single site-wide number. Stocked lines dispatch quickly; made-to-order pieces are built after the order is placed, which is why the date is quoted as a range. If an order combines both, plan the installation around the longest line, or ask us to split the delivery.

Ordering for more than one desk

Team orders go through the same basket and produce one invoice. Where a specification needs to be consistent across desks, rooms or sites, tell us what the floor has to do and we will help assemble it before anything is ordered.

Where to go next

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