Indirect Tax Rules for Insurers Across Europe

IPT is a complex thing to deal with.

Many tax authorities are increasing their focus on the insurance industry in an effort to close tax revenue gaps, with many introducing Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) and other indirect taxes for insurance. Globally, IPT is fragmented across over 200+ countries and achieving compliance can be a complex process requiring specialist knowledge.

Insurers, especially those operating across multiple territories, can find keeping up to date with the latest IPT rates, rules and regulations to ensure compliance challenging.

This guide provides a helpful snapshot of the indirect tax rules that apply to insurance premiums across Europe.

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The guide provides a useful reference of indirect rules across Europe including:

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaca, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Insurance Premium Tax compliance

The digitization of tax is a trend that will undoubtedly continue. Organisations need to prepare for any changes to reporting as this will impact compliance obligations for the countries they operate in.

Tax authorities have increased their focus on the insurance industry to ensure IPT and parafiscal taxes are collected correctly, accurately, and on time.

Operating in multiple countries inevitably means also having to comply with many local regulations in line with IPT statutory and parafiscal filing. Compliance regimes can be simple or complex, but the difficulty is that they’re varied.

Download our guide to ease this burden.

Understanding VAT Obligations: European Events

Global events are popular once again and conferences and exhibitions often create VAT registration obligations in different European Union Member States that your business operates in.

Navigating these complex place of supply rules can be challenging. Legislation varies country-to-country and the type of event you’re organising affects this. Download our helpful guide to understand what your VAT obligations are.

Place of Supply Rules

When determining where tax applies to an event, it’s important to consider the place of supply rules.

These can be confusing and hard to interpret. When organising events and conferences, there are two basic rules to think about:

  1. Does the service being supplied fall under the general place of supply rules, in which case, if the supply is B2B, VAT is due where the customer is based. In this scenario if the customer is established outside the UK, then the customer has to account for VAT on behalf of the supplier in the country they are established in under the reverse charge rules in the EU or potentially equivalent if non-EU.
  2. Does the supply fall under any of the exceptions to the main rule? The most common example being admission to conferences and events whereby VAT is due where the event is held.

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As you can see, VAT and events is a complex affair.

Admission to events, exhibitions and conferences in the EU is subject to VAT in the country where the event takes place. In addition to admission, other considerations include stand rental, local suppliers, sponsorship packages and catering services.

Our guide covers these topics:

  • VAT registration – where should I register and what VAT rules should I consider?
  • Event organisers – what VAT liabilities apply and how does it affect clients?
  • Online events – how do the rules differ for online events, both for B2B and B2C?
  • Hybrid events – are these taxed differently?
  • VAT reclaims – what claims are possible and what VAT can I recover?

Tour operators margin scheme (TOMS)

In addition to these common concerns, the Sovos Understanding VAT Obligations: European Events guide also explores TOMS – the tour operators margin scheme.

If a business buys in and sells services such as hotel accommodation, passenger transport or excursions to its clients/delegates in its own name, TOMS may well apply. The supply of services that fall under the scheme receive a different tax treatment to most supplies of services. They can require the undertaking of a complex calculation.

Also covered is a summary of non-EU events and how to apply VAT when hosting an event outside of the European Union.

For example, some non-EU countries will apply similar rules to the EU and a registration may be

Needed. However the issues will often be complex and require a business to carefully consider the organisation of the event at the outset. VAT recovery in non-EU countries will also vary and not all countries will allow refunds to overseas businesses.  

Compliance peace of mind with a complete, global VAT Managed Service from Sovos

Whatever your VAT implications, Sovos has the expertise to help you navigate your global events and the complexities of cross-border VAT obligations. Our VAT Managed Services ease your compliance workload while mitigating risk wherever you operate today. In addition, we ensure you’re ready to handle the VAT requirements in the markets you intend to lead tomorrow.

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Marketscape Report

Sovos Named a Leader in “IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud VAT Software”

Marketscape Report

Sovos Named a Leader in “IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud VAT Software”

Citing multiple customer references, IDC identified Sovos’ capability with mandated e-invoicing as a major benefit.

“Sovos combines local expertise with a global customer experience across its full suite of compliance solutions. They are a strong choice for companies of any size looking for cloud tax software and services to meet compliance and regulatory demands anywhere they do business.” – Kevin Permenter, IDC research director

 

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