Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance has withdrawn the planned publication of guidance dated April 17, 2025, concerning the application of the reduced VAT rate to wood chips supplied as firewood following amendments made by the Annual Tax Act 2024 (Jahressteuergesetz 2024).
The withdrawn guidance was intended to address changes to Item 48(a) of Annex 2 to the German VAT Act, which governs goods eligible for the reduced VAT rate.
The Ministry announced that a revised BMF letter will be issued shortly. Until new guidance is published, the principles set out in the BMF letters of April 4, 2023 (BStBl I p. 733) and September 29, 2023 (BStBl I p. 1702) continue to apply without change.
