17 December, 2015
ETNO-GSMA Tax Policy Committee contribution to EU consultation on Modernising VAT for cross border e-commerce
Please find the full questionnaire here.
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11) To what extent are VAT obligations a factor in deciding to make supplies in other Member States or not?
Medium factor
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15) Have you or your members been affected by the changes to the place of supply rules for B2C supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically supplied services
Yes
16) Please indicate how you became aware of the changes to these rules (multiple answers allowed)
- Tax administration in your Member State
- European Commission
- Representative organisation
17) How satisfied were you for the information provided ensured that you understood the implications for your business of the 2015 changes to the VAT place of supply rules?
Satisfied
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25) Please indicate your level of agreement with the objective of the Commission to minimise burdens attached to cross-border e-commerce arising from different VAT regimes:
Strongly agree
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36) Are there any other issues that you wish to address?
Further to the above provided replies, the ETNO-GSMA Tax Policy Committee ("the Committee") wishes to point out which are deemed to be the main issues in applying the new place of supply rules for telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically supplied services ("TBE" services") and the use of the MOSS.
In particular:
- with reference to question 17, the Committee members are generally satisfied for the information provided by EU Commission, and some EU Member States (UK and Ireland, notably)
- with reference to cross-border thresholds (question 31 and following), the Committee thinks that the implementation of this measure should not be limited in scope to small start-up e-commerce business
- with reference to invoicing rules applying to TBE services, the Committee would welcome a general cancellation of the requirement for mandatory invoice in B2C transactions (some Member States still maintain this requirement). In addition, in order not to disturb the competition, the same rules for invoicing B2C should apply for domestic suppliers (local VAT registration) and foreign suppliers (MOSS). In any case, home country rules should prevail
- with reference to bad debt relief VAT rules, the Committee thinks that such rules should be harmonized at the EU level, with the objective to safeguard the neutrality principle. In case this is not feasible, home country rules should prevail
- “Explanatory Notes on the EU VAT changes to the place of supply of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services that enter into force in 2015” published by EU Commission on 3 April, 2014 have provided very useful guidance for the operators. In this perspective, such Explanatory Notes should be made binding for the Member States
- the MOSS cannot be used for supplies performed in jurisdictions where the business has fixed establishments. Such limitation should be eliminated allowing reporting all supplies performed to EU end customers
- the MOSS does not allow reporting transactions in local currencies. In the Committee's opinion, this should be allowed.
Finally, the Committe thinks that the new place of supply VAT rules, as in force in the EU since January 1st, 2015, for TBE services highlight the need for of a common legal framework among the EU Member States for the VAT treatment of vouchers (vouchers are frequently used in the provisioning of TBE services)
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Please find the full questionnaire here.
