European VAT News – October 2021

Greece

From 1 July 2021, the Greek tax authorities reduced the VAT rate on electronic books and publications to 6%.

This follows the EU Council’s proposal to allow EU member states to cut rates on electronic publications to match their printed equivalents.

 

Norway

From 1 October 2021, the reduced VAT rate in Norway increased from 6% to 12%.

The reduction in the VAT rate was originally introduced back in April 2020 to help the Norwegian hospitality sector recover from the impact of COVID-19.

This rate applies to passenger transport, accommodation, public broadcasting and entry to cinemas, sports events, amusement parks, and experience centers.

 

Romania

The Romanian tax authorities have confirmed that it is now on track to introduce a mandatory SAF-T by 1 January 2022. The SAF-T file, which is a way for the tax authorities to exchange VAT data with businesses in a more secure, accurate and efficient way, will be mandatory for all VAT registered businesses.

 

These files are already in use in several EU countries including, Austria, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. Hungary is also planning to introduce SAF-T in 2021.

 

 

 

UK

 

The UK tax authorities have introduced a new reduced VAT rate on hospitality services of 12.5%.

The new rate replaces the temporary reduced VAT rate of 5%, which was introduced to help the UK hospitality sector recover from the impact of COVID-19. This new rate was introduced on 30 September 2021 and ends on 31 March 2022 where the VAT rate will return to its original 20%.

 

The above information was kindly provided by Fiscal Solutions (UK), www.fiscalsolutions.co.uk; contact: [email protected].