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Part 2 of our four-part Health Check series: A Wage Tax Health Check helps companies identify typical tax risks at an early stage and review internal processes. Errors frequently arise in areas such as entertainment expenses, company events, gifts, or the private use of company cars and e-bikes – often due to unclear responsibilities or missing data flows between departments. A structured Health Check creates transparency, identifies optimization potential and better prepares companies for wage tax audits.

Part 1 of our four-part Health Check series: Why a (VAT) Health Check can deliver value for your organization and why it should include interface issues with other tax types (combined Health Check).

A change is pending to the VAT treatment of public services that constantly run at a loss. The new Federal Ministry of Finance Circular of 20 January 2026 makes the requirements much stricter on the nature of consideration, business activity and thus also the deductibility of input VAT for operations that constantly run at a loss. In future, public services will have to meet stricter checks, particularly regarding the cost/income ratio and the link to subsidies. The new legal situation implements the decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Federal Tax Court (Bundesfinanzhof – BFH). It compels legal persons under public law (municipalities, cities, local government), but also other private operators outside the public sector, to examine and reorientate the interests they hold under private law (e.g. municipal utilities [Stadtwerke]) in private legal forms, their structures and financing models.

From 1 January 2026 the reduced rate of 7 percent applies again to food, while beverages continue to be taxed at 19 percent. This change not only affects restaurants, but also canteens, food-trucks and event catering. For businesses this means that prices, cash register systems and processes have to be updated on time. The risks of errors and liability are particularly high at the turn of the year and in handling vouchers.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has clarified that tooling supplies, as they are known, are to be considered distinctly for VAT treatment and are not automatically an ancillary supply to the supply of parts, especially if the goods are not supplied in the same way. The judgement therefore has a crucial effect on the automotive and supplier industry and a direct impact on contract drafting, invoicing and input tax deduction.

Spain is stepping up its efforts to digitise business transactions by implementing mandatory e-invoicing for companies and professionals. As part of our ongoing series “E-invoicing in the EU”, in this article we focus on the latest developments in Spain, highlighting the key aspects of Spain’s e-invoicing system, its scope and practical insights from Grant Thornton Spain.

In a recently published judgment, the Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof) gave its opinion on the tax exemption of medical treatments like hair transplants. These kinds of treatments may be tax-exempt, but it depends on whether they can be assessed as a medical condition. The judgment raises questions concerning where to draw the line and in which cases the principles of the judgment may apply beyond the case.

Poland will be among the first countries to implement mandatory e-invoicing for B2B transactions, starting in February 2026. As part of our series “E-invoicing in the EU” we will cover Poland’s experiences with the progression of this new regulation, changes to expect for businesses operating in Poland, and highlight how the Polish Grant Thornton firm approaches the implementation challenge.

In this post, we let you know the details and show you what to pay attention to with practical im-plementation.

Italy was the first country in the EU to implement mandatory e-invoicing as of January 2019 in the B2B and B2C segment. As part of our series “E-invoicing in the EU” we highlight the growing relevance of e-invoicing by examining Italy’s successful implementation and offer valuable insights for businesses that are looking to navigate this change.

The new guideline deals in detail with the allocation of wages in cases in which employees receive both taxable and tax-free wages in Germany. In particular, the application of the daily tax table for salary payment periods as of 1 January 2025 is addressed.

The EU is pushing the modernisation of the VAT system with the planned introduction of unionwide electronic invoicing (“e-invoices”). But in practical implementation, there are great differences between the EU Member States. In this article, we explain the main challenges that global businesses face and point out how you can safely navigate through the different coun-tries’ various plans for implementation.