Brussels, 22/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 22 February, MEPs on the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee examined the draft consultation report by David Casa (EPP, Malta) on the draft EU directive amending EU value added tax (VAT) rules for invoicing (see EUROPE 9828). They welcome the general idea behind the new legislation, namely to cut red tape for business and suggest putting electronic and paper invoices on the same footing, as is already the case in some member states, which have not detected any increase in fraud as a result, explained Casa. In Sweden, for example, invoices can be sent online in pdf format and 40% of Swedish businesses invoice in this manner.
The Commission suggests that all invoices should be required by law to be kept for six years. A Commission representative told MEPs that this was the mean of the storage times found in the member states. Swedish Liberal MEP Olle Schmidt and Slovenian Liberal Democrat Zoran Thaler tabled amendments to cut this to three or five years respectively in order to cut administrative costs for business, but Casa would rather stick to six years. The draft directive introduces two types of VAT invoice, a full invoice and a simplified one. Simplified invoices would apply for deals of a taxable value of less than €200. Thaler wants this to be raised to €300. The economic and monetary affairs committee is expected to adopt the Casa Report on 16 March 2010 and the plenary will vote on it in April. (M.B./transl.fl)