The EU Directive 2017/2455, approved by the European Council on 5 December 2017, modifies the Directive 2006/112 / EC on VAT, introducing a series of simplifications concerning, on the one hand, the provision of telecommunications services, radio and television broadcasting on the other hand, the distance sales of goods, with a deferred date, respectively, from 1 January 2019 and 1 January 2021.
With specific reference to the news regarding the provision of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services, with effect from 1 January 2019, the Directive 2017/2455 / EU modifies the regulation of digital services carried out through the MOSS system (Mini One Stop Shop), introducing the following news:
– introduction of the annual threshold of € 10,000.00 below which these services remain taxable in the lender’s Member State of establishment;
– the rules governing the invoicing and retention of documentation relating to the provision of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services are those applicable in the Member State of identification of the provider using the MOSS system;
– extension of the MOSS also to taxable persons providing telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services, if they are not established in the EU, but registered for VAT purposes in a member country;
– deferral of the deadline for submitting the quarterly declaration for the provision of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services, from day 20 to day 30 of the month following the reference quarter;
– faculty of the member countries to independently establish the period of conservation of the documentation related to the operations carried out using the MOSS, which therefore will no longer be the actual one equal to 10 years.
As shown in the preamble to Directive 2017/2455 / EU, the evaluation of the special regimes applicable to digital services has identified a number of areas that can be improved:
– Firstly, the need to reduce the burden on micro-enterprises established in a Member State that occasionally provide electronic services in other Member States in order to comply with VAT obligations in Member States other than that one of establishment justifies the introduction of a threshold , € 10,000.00, below which these services remain taxable in the member country of establishment;
– secondly, given that the obligation to comply with the billing and documentation requirements of all the Member States in which supplies of goods or services are made is very burdensome, in order to minimize the burden charged to the companies, it is provided that the rules for invoicing and storage of the documentation are those applicable in the Member State of identification of the seller / provider who apply the special regime;
– thirdly, the taxable persons who provide digital services, if they are not established in the EU but registered for VAT purposes in a Member State (for example because they carry out occasional transactions subject to VAT in that country), can not make use of the special regime for taxable persons not established in the EU, nor for the special regime for taxable persons established in the EU. As a result, it is now willing that such persons are authorized to make use of the special regime for taxable persons not established in the Union;
– fourthly, the assessment of the special schemes for the taxation of digital services, launched on 1 January 2015, has shown that the obligation to present the VAT declaration presupposes an excessively short deadline, ie 20 days from the end of the reference period, in particular, with regard to the services provided through a telecommunications network, an interface or a portal, if the services provided via this network, interface or portal, are presumed to be provided by the network operator, interface or portal, who is required to obtain the information from each individual service provider to complete the VAT declaration. The evaluation also highlighted that the obligation to make corrections to the VAT declaration is very burdensome for the taxable persons, as it may involve the need to resubmit various declarations every quarter. Consequently, the deadline within which the declaration must be presented is extended from day 20 to day 30 from the end of the reference quarter, with the possibility for taxable persons to correct previous declarations by means of a subsequent declaration, rather than in the declarations of the tax periods to which the corrections refer;
– fifth and last, the conservation period of documentation for the non-EU regime and the EU regime is expected to be the period defined by the Member State of identification of the taxable person, rather than the current 10-year period, which exceeds widely the requirements regarding the conservation of documentation in most of the member countries.