The German legislator has recently published a draft law reducing the German VAT rates for the second half of 2020 in order to cope with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the draft law, the standard VAT rate will be reduced from 19% to 16% and the reduced VAT rate from 7% to 5% in the period 1 July to 31 December 2020.
The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has already published a draft decree dated 11 June 2020 on the temporary reduction and (re)increase of VAT rates. To date, it is not yet fully clear when a final version of the decree will be published. In many cases, the draft of the decree resembles in detail the BMF decree of 11 August 2006, which was issued at the time of the last standard VAT rate increase (on 1 January 2007) from 16% to 19%.
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Michaela Merz 