Council Directive (EU) 2019/1995 of 21 November 2019

What it is

to ensure that VAT is paid when goods are sold through online marketplaces by independent sellers. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion. BACKGROUND: this proposal is part of a legislative package on the mandatory transmission and exchange of information on VAT payments. It is part of the EU's broader agenda to tackle VAT fraud and improve VAT collection of internet sales . Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 (“the VAT ecommerce Directive”) amending Directive 2006/112/EC2 (“the VAT Directive”): The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted, following the consultation procedure, the report of Ondřej KOVAŘÍK (Renew, CZ) on the proposal for a Council directive amending Council Directive 2006/112/EC as regards provisions relating to distance sales of goods and certain domestic supplies of goods. As a reminder, the aim of the proposal is to lay down detailed rules needed to ensure the functioning of the new VAT rules for e-commerce following the amendments introduced by Directive 2017/2455 (the VAT e-commerce Directive), which will come into force in January 2021. It clarifies in particular the situations in which electronic interfaces such as a marketplace, platform and portal are considered to facilitate sales of goods and services between users and specifies the type of information they must keep on sales made through an electronic interface. It also clarifies under which conditions marketplaces will not be liable to pay VAT on supplies of goods in excess of the VAT which is declared and paid on these supplies. The committee recommended that the European Parliament approve the European Commission's proposal subject to the following amendments: Council Directive 2006/112/EC as amended by Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 provides that where a taxable person facilitates, through the use of an electronic interface such as a marketplace, platform, portal or other similar means, distance sales of goods imported from third territories or third countries in consignments of an intrinsic value not exceeding EUR 150 or the supply of goods within the Community by a taxable person not established within the Community to a non-taxable person, the taxable person who facilitates the supply shall be deemed to have received and supplied the goods himself. The chargeable event in respect of a supply of goods by a taxable person who is deemed to have received and supplied the goods and of the supply to that taxable person shall occur and VAT shall become chargeable at the time when the payment has been accepted. S pecial scheme for non-established taxable persons supplying electronic services to non-taxable persons Members stipulated that where a taxable person has not established his business in the Community and has no fixed establishment therein, the Member State of identification shall be the Member State in which the dispatch or transport of the goods begins. Where there is more than one Member State in which the dispatch or transport of the goods begins, the taxable person shall indicate which of those Member States shall be the…

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