Greece's 2016 VAT rise is missing from the EU's TEDB database, a developer audit finds
Duty27 says 21 of 34 country and category VAT combinations it checked in the EU's TEDB database needed correction. The audit is one vendor's, but invoices and refunds dated before a rate change need a check against national law.
The Engineer · Build desk
Key figures. Greece: TEDB shows 24% for the months before 1 June 2016, as checked again on 10 October 2026; the law set 23% until then. Germany 2020: TEDB's first entry marked standard is an import VAT entry at 19%; the law cut the rate to 16% for the second half of 2020.
- 24% TEDB's Greek standard rate, months before 1 June 2016, claim 5 as checked again on 10 October 2026
- 23% Greek law before 1 June 2016, claim 4 Law 4389/2016, article 52
- 19% TEDB's first German "standard" entry, 2020 dates, claim 6 an import VAT entry
- 16% German law, 2020 cut rate, claim 19 second half of 2020
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| TEDB's Greek standard rate, months before 1 June 2016 | 24% | as checked again on 10 October 2026 | 5 |
| Greek law before 1 June 2016 | 23% | Law 4389/2016, article 52 | 4 |
| TEDB's first German "standard" entry, 2020 dates | 19% | an import VAT entry | 6 |
| German law, 2020 cut rate | 16% | second half of 2020 | 19 |
What happened
- Greece raised its standard rate from 23% to 24% on 1 June 2016, but TEDB shows 24% for the earlier months too, and still did on 10 October 2026.
- For Germany's 2020 cut, TEDB returns two entries marked standard, 19% for import VAT and the real 16%, so code that takes the first entry gets 19%.
- At every checkpoint in 2018 and 2019, TEDB gave Austria two e-book rates at once, 10% and 20%.
- Spain's 4% cut on e-books, newspapers and magazines from 23 April 2020 is absent, because TEDB had no data for those categories.
- Duty27 found the Greek and German errors by comparing TEDB with the Commission's own compiled table of rates applied in the member states, which runs to 2020.
Why it matters
- exposure Refunds, credit notes, OSS return corrections and audits all need the rate on the sale date, so these errors sit in the old dates where a rate history is used most.
- contradiction TEDB is the free official source developers reach for, yet the Commission itself, per Duty27, calls it member-state-supplied information and not a legal reference.
- decision Teams on TEDB have to decide whether to require a cited law for every rate change, as Duty27 does by failing its build, and whether to archive raw responses so a later shift can be proved.
Duty27's method explains why the Greek error lasted. It queried TEDB for every EU country four times a year back to 2016, flagged each place the rate changed between checkpoints, and checked each flag against the national law [2]. That finds changes TEDB reports. In the post's words: "If TEDB returns the same wrong number before, during and after a real change, there is nothing to flag." [3] Greece is that case. The gap is one percentage point, which on a net sale of 10,000 is 100 in tax [18].
Germany is less clean, and the post says so. Duty27's August 2026 import recorded 19% for both 1 July and 1 October 2020 [20]. The law had cut the rate to 16% for the second half of that year [19]. When Duty27 queried the same dates in October, TEDB returned 16% [21]. It did not keep the raw August responses, so it cannot show exactly what TEDB sent then, and it saw no notice of a correction [22].
The reduced-rate data had a different fault. Several countries' digital publication rates carry a start date of 1 January 2018 [9]. Duty27 says that date was never a real legal event anywhere it appeared, and the actual dates fell mostly in 2019 [9]. A check for conflicting values on the same date, and not only for changes between dates, is how the Austria and Germany problems show up, according to the post [11].
The headline figure is 21 of 34 combinations needing a fix for a wrong rate, a wrong date or a rate that never existed [12]. That is about 62% [17]. The post does not say how the 34 were chosen. For 62% to describe TEDB as a whole, they would have to be a representative draw from its country and category pairs.
We would treat it as a count of problems found. The Greek rate and the German double entry are the checkable part, since anyone can re-query the same dates through TEDB's free SOAP API [1]. Duty27 also publishes its own rate history, free as CSV and JSON [13], so the audit doubles as the case for its data.
What to watch
- Whether a fresh TEDB query still returns 24% for Greece before 1 June 2016 and two standard entries for Germany's 2020 dates.
- Whether the Commission or member states correct the entries, or respond to the 21-of-34 finding.
- Whether Duty27 explains how it chose the 34 combinations, which decides if 21 of 34 says anything about TEDB overall.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives65
- Confidence45
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
TEDB, the European Commission's Taxes in Europe Database, is free and official and has a SOAP API that answers what the VAT rate was in a given country on a given date.
- [2]
Duty27 queried TEDB for every EU country four times a year back to 2016, flagged every place where the rate changed between two checkpoints, and checked each flagged change against the national law that made it.
- [3]
"If TEDB returns the same wrong number before, during and after a real change, there is nothing to flag."
- [4]
Greece raised its standard VAT rate from 23% to 24% on 1 June 2016 under Law 4389/2016, article 52.
- [5]
TEDB reports 24% for the months before 1 June 2016 too, and still did when Duty27 checked again on 10 October 2026; any invoice, refund or correction for the first five months of 2016 that trusts TEDB uses the wrong rate.
- [6]
For the German 2020 dates TEDB still returns two entries marked "standard": an import VAT entry at 19% and the real 16%; code that takes the first entry it finds gets 19%.
- [7]
Duty27 found the Greek and German errors by comparing against the Commission's own historical "VAT rates applied in the Member States" document, a separately compiled table covering every member state up to 2020.
- [8]
In Duty27's August 2026 checks, Austria's e-book rate came back as 10% and 20% at the same time for every checkpoint in 2018 and 2019.
- [9]
Several countries' digital publication rates were dated 1 January 2018 in TEDB; Duty27 says the date was never a real legal event anywhere it appeared, and the rates took effect at different points, mostly in 2019 after the EU allowed reduced rates on electronic publications.
- [10]
Spain cut VAT on electronic books, newspapers and magazines to 4% on 23 April 2020 under Real Decreto-ley 15/2020, but TEDB had no data for those categories at all.
- [11]
Duty27 advises checking for conflicting values on the same date, not only for changes between dates, and says that is how the Austria and Germany problems show up.
- [12]
Of the 34 country and category combinations Duty27 investigated, 21 needed a correction: a wrong rate, a wrong date, or a rate that never existed.
- [13]
Duty27 publishes its full standard-rate history since 2016 as CSV and JSON, free to use, with a source for every change.
- [14]
Each rate change in Duty27's data points to the law or tax authority statement it read, and its build fails if a change has no source.
- [15]
Duty27 advises keeping the raw TEDB responses, so that a team can prove what the source said on the day.
- [16]
VAT is due at the rate that applied on the date of the sale, so historical rates matter most for a refund or credit note for a sale before a rate change, a correction to an OSS return from an earlier quarter, and a tax audit asking to show the rate charged was right on the day.
- [17]
21 of 34 combinations needing correction is about 62%.
- [18]
The difference between 24% and 23% is one percentage point, which on an illustrative net sale of 10,000 is 100 in tax.
- [19]
Germany cut its standard VAT rate from 19% to 16% for the second half of 2020 under the Zweites Corona-Steuerhilfegesetz.
- [20]
Duty27's August 2026 import from TEDB recorded 19% for both 1 July and 1 October 2020, so the German cut was invisible to its checkpoints.
- [21]
When Duty27 queried the same German dates again in October, TEDB returned 16%.
- [22]
Duty27 did not keep TEDB's raw August responses, so it cannot show exactly what TEDB sent then, and it saw no notice of a correction.
- [23]
According to Duty27, the Commission itself describes the database as information supplied by the member states, not a reference for legal purposes.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- dev.toThe EU's official VAT rate database got history wrong. Here's how we caught it.
1 article · October 14, 2026
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Topics
- Tax complianceFollow
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Entities
- TEDB (Taxes in Europe Database)Follow
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