VAT in the Digital Age
On 8 December 2022, the Commission issued its package “VAT rules for the digital age”, containing three proposals:
a proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age12; a proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards the VAT administrative cooperation arrangements needed for the digital age13; and a proposal for a Council Implementing Regulation amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 as regards information requirements for certain VAT schemes.
The package has three objectives. Firstly, it sets out to modernise the VAT reporting obligations by introducing digital reporting requirements based on electronic invoicing. Secondly, it intends to address the challenges of the platform economy by updating the applicable VAT rules. And thirdly, it seeks to address administrative burden by moving
towards a single VAT registration.
The Commission presented its package at a Working Party meeting under the Czech Presidency, and the Swedish Presidency started its work on the package, which it deemed a priority, by devoting two meetings to a broad exchange of views on the aims and directions proposed by the Commission to guide the further technical discussions on the package.
The Presidency organised four more meetings on the package to deepen the understanding of the concepts, structure and functioning of the proposed new rules, and to analyse the legal text of the amending provisions to give effect to the new rules.
After this analysis, the Presidency presented compromise texts on all three aspects of the proposals, which were welcomed by the delegations as a solid basis for further work.
To steer the further work on this file, on 16 June 2023 the Council held a policy debate on the proposals, which was prepared by the HLWP on 1 June 2023.
b) Revision of the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD)
On 14 July 2021, the Commission submitted a proposal for a Council Directive restructuring the Union framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (recast)15, (‘the ETD proposal’).
The ETD proposal is part of the “Fit for 55” package16, which aims at implementing the ambitious EU targets to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030, as compared to 1990 levels, and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The package consists of a set of inter-connected proposals, which all drive towards the same goal of ensuring a fair, competitive and green transition by 2030 and beyond.
The full report is available here.
