Regulatory Analysis

The European Council and the United Kingdom have agreed to defer the latter’s departure date from the European Union until January 31, 2020. The agreement has been labeled a “flextension,” because it leaves open the possibility of an earlier departure date, should the two sides successfully negotiate a Withdrawal Agreement. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in […]

The Polish Ministry of Finance has published a regulation in the Journal of Laws detailing the structure of the new JPK_VAT standard audit file (labelled up to now with the title “JPK_VDEK”), filing of which will become mandatory for large taxpayers from 1 April 2020 and for small and medium taxpayers from 1 July 2020. Taxpayers […]

HMRC’s trade statistics portal uktradeinfo has announced that businesses presently required to file periodic Intrastat declarations reporting the movement of goods between the UK and EU Member States will have a continuing obligation to do so after the UK leaves the EU.  HMRC has cited the reasoning for this as that the information provided remains […]

On October 14, 2019, the General Coordinator of Audits for the Federal Tax Administration in Brazil (Receita Federal), published Executive Ruling 55 revoking Version 2.0 of the EFD-Reinf layout. In so doing, it restores the Executive Ruling 65 (September 2018) Establishing Reinf Layout Version 1.4 as the required format. As a result, the planned expanded […]

Businesses operating in the EU currently not required to register for UK VAT because of cross-border simplifications (e.g. zero-rating of intra-community acquisitions, or call-off stock arrangements) may need to do so if the UK leaves the EU on 31 October without a withdrawal deal.  In order to support supply chains for UK businesses with UK […]

The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria has announced the following Intrastat thresholds starting on January 1, 2020: For Intrastat reporting dispatches, the threshold will increase from BGN 280,000 to BGN 290,000.  For Intrastat reporting arrivals, the threshold will increase from BGN 460,000 to BGN 470,000.   Thresholds for declaring statistical value are also increasing.  For dispatches, […]

In its recently published Tax Reform Act 2020, Austria has announced its intention to increase the VAT registration threshold for Austria-established businesses from EUR 30,000 to EUR 35,000 with effect from 1 January 2020. The Act has passed the lower house of Parliament (Nationalrat) and is currently being debated in the upper house (Bundesrat).   The […]

The Colombian tax administration (DIAN) has issued a new Resolution 0000064/2019 that basically extends by 2 to 3 months the deadline for complying with the new pre-validation system established by Resolution 000020/2019. Originally, Resolution 0000020 established two schedules of compliance: The first one classified the taxpayers into 14 groups, and established deadlines according to the […]

The Polish Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) has issued a reminder regarding the introduction of a mandatory split payments regime (known as “MPP”) for certain VAT-bearing transactions for selected categories of goods and services, commencing 1 November 2019. If a transaction falls within the scope of MPP, whilst the net or taxable amount of the payment […]

On 26 September 2019, Uzbekistan’s Presidential Decree #5837 “On measures for further improvement of the tax policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan” was adopted.  This decree lowers the standard VAT rate from 20% to 15%, effective October 1, 2019. For more information, please find the decree here.

As long anticipated, Hungary has released the finalized specifications for version 2.0 of the invoice data reporting schema. At this time bilingual XSD documentation and Hungarian-only API documentation have been released. Tax authorities have indicated that full testing of the new schema is expected to be available in the test environment by the end of […]

The Kenyan Revenue Authority (KRA) has informed taxpayers that in the upcoming months it will become mandatory for businesses with revenues above 5 million Kenyan Schillings (Around 48,470 dollars) to use electronic tax registers that communicate sales data in real time to the tax authorities. The announcement comes after KRA started a successful pilot program […]

[August 9, 2019] Effective November 2, 2019, most taxpayers in Colombia will be required to transmit electronic invoices pursuant to the schema defined by Universal Business Language (UBL) Version 2.1. Specifically, the Colombian Tax Administration (DIAN) issued Resolution 000020/2019 establishing the schedule for complying with the new pre-clearance e-invoicing requirements and for upgrading to UBL […]

[August 5, 2019] On August 2, Zambia’s newly appointed Finance Minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, requested that the Sales Tax Bill be withdrawn from Parliament for consideration. The Sales Tax Bill, which was the initiative made by Zambia to shift from an existing Value Added Tax system to a new Sales Tax structure, was originally supposed to take effect […]

With effect from 1st July 2019, e-books and electronically provided magazines and journals will become subject to the lower rate of 6% VAT (the standard rate of 25% previously applied) in Sweden. This change will result in equal treatment of electronic publications and their physical equivalents under Swedish VAT law. This falls into line with […]

[June 10, 2019] The New Zealand Parliament is considering proposed changes to the GST rules for importers of “low-value” goods supplied to New Zealand consumers. Under the omnibus tax reform bill, offshore suppliers, which includes online marketplace sellers, that sell goods that are valued at or below NZD 1,000 into New Zealand, will be required to […]

[June 10, 2019] The Bulgarian Parliament introduced a new bill on the 5th June 2019 that includes various proposed changes to the Bulgarian Value Added Tax Act. Included among the changes is a new lower VAT reduced rate of 5%, which would come into effect from 1st January 2020. Under the current proposed language, the […]

Following the introduction of a voluntary split payment system last year, Poland is now proceeding with a mandatory regime to come into effect from 1st September 2019 for all payments of 15,000zl (approximately 3,500 euros) or more.  Under the scheme, which will apply to both established and non-established businesses, the VAT element of any payment, […]