The VAT on the freight/forwarding service itself follows its own rules. They're separate from the reverse-charge mechanism (who accounts for the VAT) and from the duty and import VAT on the goods. These are general VAT rules for transport, and they're where a quote quietly turns out wrong. Nexport Logistics gets the freight VAT right in the Nexportal portal.
Place of supply: freight is taxed in the customer's country
Freight and forwarding are B2B services, so the place of supply is the customer's country (Article 44 of the EU VAT Directive):
- Dutch forwarder → German business customer: no Dutch VAT. It's reverse-charged to the German customer, who reports it in their own return (the mechanism: Reverse Charge Vat).
- Dutch forwarder → Dutch business customer: normal Dutch VAT (21%).
- "Use and enjoyment" exception: when the transport takes place entirely within one country or entirely outside the EU, the place can shift to where the service is actually used. That can change the outcome.
Import and export transport is 0%-rated
- Import transport (from outside the EU): the transport cost is 0% VAT when it's already included in the customs value of the goods (it sits in the import-VAT base), so it isn't taxed twice.
- Export transport: the 0% export exemption applies only when the transport is invoiced directly to the exporter/consignor, not when it's a leg invoiced to another forwarder. The Court of Justice ruled this in the L.Č. case (C-288/16, 2017): a transport service to an intermediary/forwarder is taxed, while the same service billed to the exporter directly is exempt. Belgium applies this strictly since 1 April 2022; the published Dutch guidance is more lenient on subcontracted legs, so check the current position before relying on it. The same truck to the same place can be 0% or VAT-charged depending on who you invoice.
Rules differ per country and per situation, so always confirm the local treatment (and keep your tax adviser in the loop).
Where the 0% stops: the first leg, storage, and the second leg
A typical real-world chain (container in, transport to the warehouse, storage, then a second trip to the customer) shows where the 0% ends:
- First leg (port to the place of destination, e.g. your warehouse): 0% VAT, provided that destination is known at the moment of import (it's where the goods are delivered to per the import data) and the cost sits in the import-VAT base. Taxing it again would be double taxation.
- Storage: it flips with the customs status. Bonded storage, where the goods are still under customs and not yet imported, is 0% when connected to the import. Ordinary storage of goods that are already imported (in free circulation) is normal 21%.
- Second leg (warehouse to customer), after the goods are imported: 21%, a normal domestic transport service (or reverse-charged if it's a cross-border B2B service).
So the dividing line is the "place of destination" known at import plus the customs status: up to that point, connected to the import, 0%; once the goods are imported and moving onward, normal VAT.
How Nexport Logistics fits in
Nexport Logistics is a freight forwarder working under the FENEX conditions. We invoice the freight with the right VAT treatment (0% where it belongs, reverse-charged where the customer is abroad, 21% on a domestic onward leg) and line it up with the Customs declaration and the import-VAT base. That way your landed cost is right and nothing is taxed twice, all visible in the Nexportal portal. Want your freight VAT checked? Email info@nexportlogistics.nl.
Official sources: Belastingdienst — VAT on services at import/export · European Commission — Place of taxation. Related: Reverse Charge Vat · Customs Value · Customs · Incoterms