On Wednesday 12 December, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation and directive to better combat VAT fraud in the e-commerce sector.
“More than 90% of European customers’ online purchases involve a payment intermediary such as credit card and direct debit providers and data held by these companies can offer EU tax administrations a useful tool to control the VAT obligations on cross-border sales of goods and services”, explains the Commission.
The new rules also establish quarterly information exchange obligations for payment service providers that will allow the Eurofisc network to exchange and analyse certain payment data on cross-border sales.
To this end, the Commission will develop a new Central Electronic Payment Information System (CESOP), which is expected to be launched in three years' time.
Information on incoming payments will allow Member States to identify domestic suppliers who sell goods and services abroad without fulfilling their VAT obligations, while information on outgoing payments will identify suppliers established abroad who should pay VAT in a given Member State.
Both texts have yet to be approved by the EU Council, after consultation with the European Parliament. See the proposal for a regulation: https://bit.ly/2GgejPl and a directive: https://bit.ly/2Ljvq1P. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)