In an article published on 13 November 2025, the VEROT section of Taloustaito addressed the VAT treatment of consulting services supplied from Finland to a Swiss customer. The case concerned a Finnish limited liability company (Oy) invoicing a Swiss-registered non-profit association for consulting work.
The question was whether Finnish VAT should be charged on the invoice. According to the response provided by tax lawyer Miika Härkönen, consulting services are classified as intangible services for VAT purposes. The applicable place-of-supply rule depends on whether the customer is regarded as a taxable person. A non-profit organisation may be treated as a taxable person for VAT place-of-supply purposes if it carries out supplies of goods or services for consideration.
If the Swiss customer is regarded as a taxable person, the general B2B place-of-supply rule applies. Under this rule, a service is deemed to be supplied in the country where the customer is established. Consequently, the service is not regarded as supplied in Finland, and Finnish VAT is not charged. If the Swiss customer is not regarded as a taxable person, the special place-of-supply rule for intangible services applies. Under this rule, an intangible service supplied to a non-taxable person established outside the European Union is likewise not considered to be supplied in Finland.
In this case, both possible place-of-supply rules lead to the same conclusion: Finnish VAT should not be included on the invoice for the consulting services supplied to the Swiss organisation.
The article underlines the importance of correctly assessing the customer’s VAT status, while also demonstrating that, for consulting services supplied to customers established outside the EU, Finnish VAT is often not applicable under either the general or special place-of-supply rules.