Temporary VAT reduction by 3% until 31.12.2020

To my knowledge, there has been no reduction in VAT so far and thus an improvement for the consumer. Accordingly, there can be no "because it has been like this so far."

Your argument with the net amount has a flaw. If it had been just as easy to pass on the tax increase to the consumer before, no construction company would have included this point again separately in the contract terms. However, most construction companies seem to have the adjustment of VAT as a clause in the contract. The only argument for the different treatment could be consumer protection.

I'm out for today too.

To my knowledge, there has been no reduction in VAT so far and thus no improvement for the consumer. Accordingly, there can be no "because it was like this before."

Your argument with the net amount has a flaw.
If it had been as easy as that to pass the tax on to the consumer in case of an increase, no construction company would have included this point separately in the contract terms again. However, most construction companies seem to have the point on VAT adjustment in the contract.
The only argument for the different treatment could be consumer protection here.

I'm out for today too.

Again, is my mistake perhaps that we are building with an architect in individual contracting?
That may be silly, but certainly not irrelevant because of that. We are surely not the only ones using individual contracting.

We are currently also doing single contracts and instead of discussing details, I have called the various trades in the last few days and asked how they handle it. Independently of each other, the answer was the same everywhere: the net price stays the same, VAT is reduced from 19 to 16%, and therefore the gross price also decreases.

I received the same response. With the addition that they don't care at all about the amount of VAT because it just passes through anyway and they of course adhere to the legal standard, whatever it looks like in July and whatever the tax advisor specifies. They are just really annoyed by the extra effort that the whole thing causes.

So with our general contractor, it was like this back then with the VAT increase: they went by the service date. So each service was invoiced exactly with the VAT rate valid at the "time" (rather period) of the service provision. The valid VAT at the time of final acceptance was not applied. It is assumed that the same approach can be taken now. (Still being clarified) That would mean all services between July 1 and December 31 (unless it is extended) would cost the end consumer 3% less. That would be great for us. Our shell construction starts in August/September

I haven't read the last pages here anymore, so it may be that the information is not new:

Yesterday I asked our construction advisor. For them, it is such that after the final acceptance (= point of service delivery), you receive a final invoice with the then current VAT rate for the total net construction sum. So basically exactly as I already explained in my post #22.

However, he also said that this has not yet been decided by the Bundestag and thus there might still be changes (which he is right about).
Currently, several changes are apparently being discussed:

1.) Construction industry will be excluded from the VAT reduction
2.) Start of the VAT reduction from January 1 to December 31, 2021 due to simpler demarcation and longer lead time
3.) Extension of the VAT reduction, for example, for the duration of the recession

Ultimately, one should wait until the law is officially passed. Before that, it is just speculation...