The Law proposal which transposes the quick fixes directive into Portuguese law has been recently published on the national parliament site. The Law proposal is still, to the best of our knowledge, pending approval in the national parliament but the indication within….
The Law proposal which transposes the quick fixes directive into Portuguese law has been recently published on the national parliament site. The Law proposal is still, to the best of our knowledge, pending approval in the national parliament but the indication within the proposal is the entry into force date as 1 January 2020 (we still do not know if the law will be published later in January with retroactive effect).
You may find below the key points of the proposed legislation.
Here is the link to the proposal (only available in PT version): Quick Fixes Portugal_Law Proposal
Two new conditions will be introduced in the law for exempting an Intra-Community supply of goods from VAT:
- The communication, by the recipient of the goods in another Member State, to the supplier of the goods in Portugal, of a valid VIES number (article 14(1)(a) of the RITI – Intra-Community Supplies Regime Code)
- The submission, by the supplier of the goods, of an EC listing reporting the exempt Intra-Community supply; In case of failure of this obligation, the supplier may correct the infraction in justified cases (article 14(2) of the RITI)
The following criteria will be introduced in the law to harmonize the treatment of VAT exemptions in Intra-Community supplies of goods involving chain transactions (multiple and successive supplies):
- When goods are dispatched or transported from Portugal to another Member-State directly from the supplier to the last customer of the supply chain, the dispatch or transport in the supply chain (and therefore the VAT exempt Intra-Community supply) will be ascribed to the supply of goods made to the intermediary operator (article 14(3) of the RITI), HOWEVER
- In situations in which the intermediary operator communicates, to the supplier, his PT VAT identification number, the dispatch or transport in the supply chain (and therefore the VAT exempt Intra-Community supply) will be ascribed to the supply of goods made by the intermediary operator (article 14(4) of the RITI)
- Intermediary operator is defined as the taxable person which, not being the first supplier in the chain, dispatches or transports the goods to other Member State, either himself or through a third party acting on his behalf (article 14(5) of the RITI)
Under the new legislation, the transfer of goods from another Member State to a consignment stock in Portugal next to an identified taxable recipient will not give rise, at the time of transfer of stock, to a deemed intracommunity supply but to an intracommunity acquisition of the goods in Portugal by the recipient, at the time of sale (with the correspondent intracommunity supply of the goods in the origin Member State) when the following criteria are met:
- The supplier reports the intracommunity delivery in the correspondent “EC Sales Listing”;
- Both supplier and recipient maintain detailed records of the goods supplied and received; and,
- The sale of the goods in stock to the identified recipient in Portugal takes place within 1 year after the arrival of the goods or when the goods in consignment stock are returned to the Member State of dispatch within this period.
The above information was kindly provided by Belim (Portugal). If you have any questions or need any clarifications, please contact: [email protected].
