Bulgaria
The Bulgarian tax authorities have confirmed that the VAT rate applicable to the following goods and services will remain at 9% until after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended:
- Restaurant and catering services
- Tour operator services, including the organisation of excursions by tour operators and travel agents with occasional transportation
- Books and some other publications
- Services related to the use of sports facilities
- Foods suitable for babies and young children as well as baby nappies and similar baby hygiene products.
France
From January 2022, France has split its monthly dispatch Intrastat report (Déclaration d’Echanges de Biens (DEB)) into two separate reports.
This is an effort to follow the same processes and reporting requirements that other EU member states currently follow.
- Intrastat report – This is a monthly report that lists the movement of goods from one EU member state to another. The only change to this report will be the additional requirement to report the country of origin for goods being delivered from France to other EU countries. The country of origin is where the goods were originally produced or materially processed to their current form. This will be subject to a calendar year threshold of €460,000.
- EC Sales List (ESL) – This is a monthly recapitulative statement which declares the total value of cross-border sales of goods and services made to separate customers within the EU. It is effectively a list of the EU VAT numbers of your clients and the value of the supplies to them, where these have been delivered from France to another EU country. There is no threshold applicable for the submission of these reports.
Germany
The German government has announced that it intends to implement a mandatory B2B e-invoicing regime in the country.
The new voluntary regime will allow businesses that sell to other VAT registered businesses and government departments in the country to declare their sales to the German tax authorities via a new e-invoicing platform. This is instead of sending invoices directly to their customers. The German tax authorities will then digitally verify these invoices and send them to the customer via its platform.
The government has confirmed that it intends to implement the new regime as soon as possible and hopes this will help to prevent VAT fraud in the country, while reducing administration requirements for both the German VAT administration and VAT registered businesses.
Romania
From 1 January 2022, businesses will be able to register for the live VAT e-invoice (the RO e-Factura) reporting in Romania.
The new voluntary regime will allow businesses that sell to other VAT registered businesses and government departments in the country to declare their sales to the Romanian tax authorities via a new e-invoicing platform. This is instead of sending invoices directly to their customers.
The Romanian tax authorities will then digitally verify these invoices and then send them to the customer via its platform.
The Ministry of Finance hopes this new invoice-reporting regime will help to prevent VAT fraud in the country and if successful, it is planning to make this a mandatory requirement for some high-risk transactions where fraud is prevalent from as early as 1 July 2022.
Romania joins a growing list of EU countries, including Italy, Hungary, Poland, France, and Slovakia, which have or will introduce e-invoices in the near future.
Slovakia
Slovakia will introduce a new real-time invoice-reporting regime for all VAT registered businesses. Once fully implemented, this will apply to all taxable transactions in the country.
The introduction of the new regime will be phased in, and the key dates can be seen below:
Phase 1 – August 2021 – December 2021 – Testing of the new system by selected VAT registered businesses.
Phase 2 – January 2022 – Electronic invoicing regime will go live for all sales and purchases from government departments.
Phase 3 – January 2023 – Electronic invoicing regime goes live for all businesses registered in the country.
Although the new regime will apply to all VAT registered businesses, only resident businesses will be able to declare their sales to the Slovakian tax authorities via a new e-invoicing platform. This is instead of sending invoices to their customers themselves. Non-resident businesses will not be able to use this platform and will send and receive invoices to and from the Slovakian tax authorities via a dedicated email address.
The Slovakian tax authorities will then check these invoices and if correct, they will approve them by applying a digital stamp. They will then send the invoice directly to the customer on behalf of the supplier via the new system.
It’s hoped this new invoice-reporting regime will prevent common errors on these types of invoices and will also help prevent VAT fraud in the country.
Spain
The Spanish government has approved the VAT law that includes a requirement for businesses to issue electronic invoices for all business-to-business (B2B) transactions.
Currently, the Spanish tax authority receives transactional information from certain taxpayers through the Suministro Inmediato de Información (SII). However, this platform only applies to large enterprises with an annual turnover of over €6 million, and companies affected are only required to upload invoices to the tax authorities within four working days from the issue or receipt of an invoice.
By moving to compulsory e-invoicing over SII, it would mean a wider set of taxpayers would be required to validate their B2B invoices on a more frequent basis before issuing these to their clients. It is hoped that this will then further prevent common errors on these types of invoices and will help prevent VAT fraud in the country.
Spain joins a growing list of EU countries, including Italy, Hungary, Poland, France, Romania, and Slovakia, which have or will introduce e-invoices soon.
The above information was kindly provided by Fiscal Solutions (UK), www.fiscalsolutions.co.uk; contact: [email protected].
