VAT on coffee in Europe: rates by country, CN code and coffee excise
Whole beans, ground, decaffeinated, capsules and pods all carry the same rate within a country, because they are all roasted coffee under CN heading 0901; only instant coffee (CN 2101) sometimes differs. In Germany the reduced rate of 7% applies plus €2.19/kg coffee tax, while Austria charges 20%, the United Kingdom 0% and Hungary 27%. This page lists 39 countries and shows for every rate whether it is backed all the way to national law.
Not tax or legal advice. This page is an editorial reference and replaces neither tax advice (§ 5 StBerG) nor legal advice (§ 3 RDG); it does not create a client relationship. Rechnungskit does not guarantee that any rate is current and correct in an individual case. Check every figure with the competent tax authority or your tax advisor before using it in a live VAT configuration.
How to read the table
Every rate has a review status. It shows which figures you can work with and which remain placeholders until someone checks them.
Traced back to the law or the tax authority itself. The row opens the exact reference. Reliable for configuration, though your own confirmation is still sensible.
From a credible secondary source: a Big Four overview, a specialist VAT practice, an official announcement, but not traced back to the legal text.
Listed for completeness, not suitable as a basis. Set in lighter type throughout, since these rows haven't earned the same weight yet.
VAT on coffee by country
All forms of roasted coffee (CN 0901) share one column; instant coffee (CN 2101) gets its own because it sometimes differs. Coffee excise is a different tax and sits to the right of the divider. Click a row for the legal basis.
A note on Austria: Many sources publish 10%; the actual rate is 20%. The Austrian reduction list is an exhaustive catalog of customs headings and admits spices as "headings 0904 to 0910", so it deliberately starts one heading after coffee at 0901. Because the Commission no longer maintains a consolidated register, errors like this travel through search results unchecked. That is why every figure here carries its status.
What the rate alone doesn't tell you: This table shows the national VAT rate per country. It assumes shipping from Germany to a consumer in the destination country. To a non-EU country (such as Ukraine or Switzerland) that is a tax-exempt export, and the local rate does not appear on your German invoice. From a local warehouse (such as fulfillment or FBA), other rules apply again. More in the section OSS, EC Sales List or export.
OSS, EC Sales List or export? What the rate alone doesn't tell you
The rate in the table is the national VAT rate of the country. Whether and how it applies to you as a German seller depends on three things: EU or non-EU, consumer or business customer, and which warehouse you ship from. Four cases cover almost everything.
Shipping from Germany to a private person without a VAT ID in another EU country is an intra-EU distance sale (§ 3c UStG). Above the EU-wide €10,000 threshold, or if you opt in, the destination country's rate applies, reportable through the EU One-Stop Shop (§ 18j UStG). Relevant for OSS, not for the EC Sales List.
Shipping from Germany to a business with a valid VAT ID that it actually uses, plus proof of arrival (Gelangensnachweis), is a tax-exempt intra-EU supply (§ 4 no. 1 (b) in conjunction with § 6a UStG). To be reported in the EC Sales List (§ 18a UStG). Relevant for the EC Sales List, not for OSS.
Shipping from Germany to a non-EU country is a tax-exempt export supply (§ 4 no. 1 (a) in conjunction with § 6 UStG); it requires proof of export (documentary and accounting evidence, ATLAS exit note). The German invoice shows no VAT but an exemption note. Neither OSS nor EC Sales List.
If you ship from a warehouse in the destination country (such as fulfillment or FBA), moving your goods there is an intra-EU transfer (§ 3 Abs. 1a in conjunction with § 6a (2) UStG) and triggers a registration in the warehouse country plus an EC Sales List entry. The later sale to a customer in the same country is a local domestic supply with local VAT, not via OSS. The table rate then applies as the local rate there.
Example Ukraine: Ukraine's rate is 20%. If you sell and ship from Germany, that is a tax-exempt export, so no German VAT and no 20% on your invoice. Whether Ukrainian import VAT or local tax applies depends on the law there and how the delivery is set up (Incoterms, who acts as importer).
Rechnungskit handles these cases automatically: the destination rate for distance sales, the exemption with an EC Sales List flag for a checked VAT ID, the export note for non-EU countries. More on the threshold in the OSS scheme, on the automatic destination rate in the Checkout, and on how to treat shipping costs.
Why the rates differ
Behind the whole table are two regulatory traditions. Some countries define food functionally: everything intended for human consumption gets the reduced rate, and coffee is obviously food. That is how the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland work, which is why coffee lands at 9%, 6% and 2.6% there without ever being named.
Others define the reduction as an exhaustive list of customs headings. Coffee only gets it if it is on the list. In Austria it isn't: Annex 1 to UStG 1994 lists spices as headings 0904 to 0910, and heading 0901, coffee, is simply missing, so the standard rate of 20% applies. The Italian Tabella A works the same way and lands at 22%, with the odd result that roasted coffee substitutes and coffee extracts get 10%, but coffee itself does not.
Germany is the third case: a list system that names coffee explicitly. Anlage 2 Nr. 12 UStG covers green, roasted, decaffeinated and ground coffee (heading 0901); that is why the 7% holds for beans, capsules and pods. Instant coffee (heading 2101) is not named there and only reaches 7% through the chapter-wide catch-all no. 33 "miscellaneous edible preparations, chapter 21", not through a mention of coffee of its own.
So when entering a market, the useful question is not whether the country reduces food, but whether the reduction rule is functional or a list, and whether heading 0901 is on that list. If 0901 is missing, the standard rate applies, however edible the product may be.
CN codes
The code decides the tax rate and, in Germany, also the coffee tax category. Eight digits for exports and intra-EU trade statistics, ten (TARIC) for import declarations in the EU.
Capsules and pods: an open question
A capsule with pure ground roasted coffee falls under 0901: the coffee gives the product its essential character, and the capsule is packaging. A capsule with instant coffee or added milk or sugar moves to 2101.
There is no binding EU regulation or relevant court ruling on pure roasted coffee capsules. The reference point is US customs ruling HQ 967568 of May 25, 2005 (Sara Lee/DE) on filter paper pods, which classifies them under 0901 21 via General Rule 3 (b): persuasive, but not binding in the EU. If capsules make up a significant part of your volume, a binding tariff information decision (BTI, vZTA) is the reliable route, not this page.
Coffee excise is not VAT
A national excise duty per kilogram, regardless of the buyer's VAT status. Price it in as a fixed cost per kilo. In Germany it also sits inside the VAT base.
Method and limits
Verified rows were read in the national law or on the tax authority's own pages, in the original language; the reference is in the row. Reported rows come from credible secondary sources that we did not trace further. Unverified rows are placeholders and are styled as such.
This page is compiled independently of the Commission's self-reported TEDB database. Where the two differ, TEDB is not automatically right, but it is the check we would run first.
Covered is the packaged product a shop or subscription ships. Prepared coffee as a drink is subject to the standard rate in most of these countries and is left out.
Reviewed quarterly. Next review: December 2026. If a row is wrong, just let us know: it gets corrected and the source is recorded in the change log.