Brussels, 26/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has launched an open consultation concerning whether Member States' VAT compliance requirements should be harmonised and whether traders doing business across frontiers should be allowed a single place of compliance for VAT purposes. The consultation is open for comments until the end of August 2003. is based on a study carried out on behalf of the Commission that presents a comprehensive overview of VAT compliance obligations (registration, declarations, payment and refunds) in each Member State. The study points out that these obligations are extremely burdensome for cross-border traders who are often unfamiliar with the compliance procedures and contact points and have language difficulties when dealing with administrations in countries other than own. The Commission intends to launch a proposal in this field in 2004 The study describes current VAT obligations in the fifteen Member States in four fields: VAT registration, the submission of declarations, payment and refund of balances and the submission of recapitulative statements. It concludes that ultimately there should be: a single, harmonised EU VAT-compliance regime (harmonisation of when and how VAT obligations have to be fulfilled) linked to a single place of compliance (where VAT obligations have to be fulfilled) in the Member State where the trader has his main establishment. However, the study acknowledges that a single, harmonised compliance regime may be difficult to achieve in the short or medium term at the EU level. It therefore suggests a step by step approach to achieving these goals. The present onerous VAT compliance requirements prevent small and medium sized companies in particular from benefiting fully from the Internal Market," said Frits Bolkestein.
During the opening of the consultation period. The Commissioner also underlined that the Commission intended to take steps to try to rectify this problem. Other online European Commission consultations can be accessed via the "Your Voice in Europe" portal at: http: //europa.eu.int/yourvoice/index_en.htm