The VAT legislative package on electronic commerce will be operational in all Member States on 1 January 2021.
The European Parliament concluded the consultation procedure yesterday, approving the amendments to the VAT Directive (2006/112 / EC) formulated by the European Commission with the 11 December 2018 proposal.
With this proposal the Commission try to simplify the measures introduced by Directive 2017/2455 / EU, for web platforms which facilitate electronic commerce transactions carried out by taxable persons not established in the EU towards final consumers in the EU.
The Eu Commission, in order to combat the VAT evasion phenomenon, has provided, with directive 2017/2455, that from 1 January 2021 the electronic platforms (such as Amazon or Alibaba), facilitating distance sales of goods imported from third countries with less than 150 euros value or for intra-community sales, become at the same time buyers and transferors of goods with VAT payment obligation on them.
In practice, the good transfer is divided into two separate transfers, the first one between the non-resident merchant and the web platform (VAT payable in the EU) and the second one between the platform itself and the final customer.
The related VAT is paid by the platform with the MOSS special regime.
The recent changes proposed by the European Commission will provide for:
- the extension of the special regime to the domestic supplies that electronic interfaces should do for stocks held by non-resident merchants in a given country in the event that these assets were sold in the same Member State;
- the exemption of the B2B transactions from the Ue non-taxable seller to the web platform with the right for such seller to deduct the VAT paid upstream for the purchase or importation of the sold goods.