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VAT refund procedure for non-resident taxable persons: small concessions and significant tightening of formal requirements

Already with effect from 20.07.2017, secs. 60 and 61 of the German VAT Implementation Code were amended. In its letter of 22.09.2017, the Federal Ministry of Finance implemented the amendment into the German VAT Circular. Generally, the formal requirements are being tightened and will already apply to refund applications for 2017, which had to be filed by 30.09.2017.

Major reform of VAT on trade within the EU begins 

The transitional régime for intra-Community trade introduced more than 25 years ago is to be replaced by a definitive VAT system. On 4 October 2017, the EU Commission published the first draft proposals for the amendments to the Council Directives and explained the new system’s basic structure. 

The upcoming introduction of a split payment system by the Romanian tax authorities will enable them to control future payment transactions between taxpayers. It is expected that, as of 1 January 2018, it will be mandatory for customers to transfer invoiced VAT amounts to a special tax account of the supplier. The regulation will also be applicable for taxpayers not established in Romania but registered for VAT purposes there.

Hungary extended the scope of the food chain supervision fee (FCSF) to foreign businesses registered for VAT in Hungary. Previously only domestic companies were obliged to pay FCSF. The food chain supervision fee (FCSF) is a tax on the food supply chain activities. FCSF rate is 0,1 % and it is levied on the net sales revenue derived from such activity.

The German Ministry of Finance implements Federal Fiscal Court case law with respect to the waiver of VAT exemptions, as well as the withdrawal thereof. Accordingly, in the future, the waiver and its withdrawal are still permissible up to the substantive enforceability. However, this does not apply to the supply of immovable property outside of a foreclosure procedure. In the future, a taxable person can only opt for VAT liability when a notarial sales contract is concluded.

A news update (version 0.7) has been published on the website of the Spanish Tax Agency. The main issues are as follows:...

B²C e-services are taxable where the customer is resident (for EU companies only since 01.01.2015). Accordingly, companies providing B²C...

Switzerland is planning to vote on amendments to the VAT Act. Among other things, a new VAT threshold should be introduced. Currently, companies are not...

In the new update of the technical instructions (version 0.6), the Spanish tax authorities have provided information about ...

The Italian VAT law restricts the scope of compensation between tax debts and VAT credits under a certain amount for each tax...