Fifteen points
of VAT turn onone declaration.

Fifteen points of the works, which on a rebuild is almost always the largest single figure a client influences. Six per cent instead of twenty-one is not a discount at the margin; on a few hundred thousand euros of work it is tens of thousands. That is the reason this sits on the front page of a builder's website rather than in a footnote, and the reason we would rather have the conversation before a quotation than during a build.

Since 1 January 2024 the national regime for demolition and reconstruction is permanent and conditional. The reconstructed dwelling must be the sole and own dwelling of the person for whom the works are done. Its habitable surface must not exceed two hundred square metres. That person must be domiciled there. And the position must continue to be satisfied for five years. Since 1 January 2025 the regime also covers demolition and reconstruction where the dwelling is then let long-term to a private individual who makes it their main residence, under the same surface limit. Whether your project meets them is a question for your tax adviser, and we will write out what they need to look at.

Because the reduced rate is available only where the declaration has been lodged before the VAT becomes chargeable. This is the point at which real money is lost, and it is lost for an entirely procedural reason. Work gets under way, invoices are issued at twenty-one per cent on the assumption that it can be sorted out later, and it cannot: re-invoicing does not recover the rate on amounts already invoiced. We therefore do not issue an invoice at the reduced rate unless the declaration is held, and we raise the subject before any invoice goes out rather than at the end.

No, and assuming so is the most common error in this area. There is a separate reduced rate for works on a dwelling that is at least ten years old, and it has its own conditions, which are not the ones described above. The two regimes are not interchangeable: a conclusion reached about one establishes nothing about the other. Tell us which you are actually doing — and if a project involves both, say so early, because the distinction between a deep renovation and a reconstruction is exactly where the question gets difficult.

The conditions have to continue to be met throughout the period, and a failure may give rise to an obligation to repay the benefit of the reduced rate. That obligation falls on the person for whom the works were carried out, not on the builder. It is worth knowing before you commit, because the five years is a continuing obligation rather than a box ticked once, and life sometimes has other plans. Your adviser can tell you how it would apply to your circumstances; what we can do is make sure nobody treats it as a formality.

No, and the line is kept deliberately clear because crossing it would not help you. Tax and accountancy advice are reserved to professionals registered with the ITAA, and legal advice to the Bar. What this company does is factual: establish which regime a project would engage, set out what its conditions require, write down the questions your adviser needs to answer, and hold the declaration before invoicing. In practice that makes the adviser's involvement shorter and cheaper, because the facts arrive organised.