> However, the acquisition is taxed in the EU country which issued the VAT number of the customer declaring the acquisition (Article 41 VAT Directive). If this EU country is different from the EU country where the dispatch or transport of the goods ended, this will be followed by an adjustment of the VAT paid in the EU country which issued the VAT number.
There's even an exact example of this:
> A Dutch company acquires goods from a business in Belgium using its Dutch VAT number and the goods are sent to Spain. The acquisition is taxed in Spain and any tax due in the Netherlands will be adjusted (Article 41 VAT Directive).
So the Dutch company is using their Dutch VAT ID, they don't have to open a branch in Spain to obtain a Spanish VAT ID just to ship there. The tax adjustment happens in the Netherlands. The Dutch company is taxed by Spain and the Netherlands (Article 41) and the company will have the tax adjusted after they can prove that the tax has properly been paid in Spain.
Taken from the linked https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/taxation/vat/vat-directive/where-tax-place-taxable-transactions_de page:
> However, the acquisition is taxed in the EU country which issued the VAT number of the customer declaring the acquisition (Article 41 VAT Directive). If this EU country is different from the EU country where the dispatch or transport of the goods ended, this will be followed by an adjustment of the VAT paid in the EU country which issued the VAT number.
There's even an exact example of this:
> A Dutch company acquires goods from a business in Belgium using its Dutch VAT number and the goods are sent to Spain. The acquisition is taxed in Spain and any tax due in the Netherlands will be adjusted (Article 41 VAT Directive).
So the Dutch company is using their Dutch VAT ID, they don't have to open a branch in Spain to obtain a Spanish VAT ID just to ship there. The tax adjustment happens in the Netherlands. The Dutch company is taxed by Spain and the Netherlands (Article 41) and the company will have the tax adjusted after they can prove that the tax has properly been paid in Spain.