Regulatory Analysis

On June 24, 2020, European Union member states’ ambassadors reached a preliminary agreement on postponing the VAT e-Commerce Package from 1 January 2021 to 1 July 2021. Reports indicate that the postponement should be formally adopted by the Council following legal and linguistic review. The European Commission initially proposed the postponement in May due to the impact […]

The IAPR and the Ministry of Finance have signed the long-awaited bill, which once turned into law will enforce the myDATA system within Greece. According to the IAPR’s announcement, the bill will specify: the scope of application, any exceptions, the data to be submitted, the time, methods of transmission and the specific obligations of businesses. […]

UK HM Revenue & Customs has announced that the application of VAT by reverse charge on the provision of construction services in the UK will be delayed from 1 October 2020 to 1 March 2021 (the originally planned commencement date was 1 October 2019).  The revised reverse charge rules will impact any businesses that supply […]

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance has announced that VAT rates will be temporarily reduced from 1 July 2020 through 31 December 2020 to stimulate the economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The standard rate is to be lowered from 19% to 16%, and the reduced rate is to be lowered from 7% to 5%. […]

The Czech Ministry of Finance has announced the removal of the concession whereby the import into Czech from outside the EU of small consignments valued at less than 22 euros were exempted from import VAT.  This equalizes the VAT treatment with goods arriving from EU countries.  This change will coincide with the adoption of the […]

In conjunction with its revised 1,100 bn budget projection for the period 2021-2027, the European Commission has published its Next Generation EU strategy for alleviating the social and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, to be financed by up to 750bn euros of borrowing.  The intention is that this borrowing will be paid back in […]

On 28 May 2020, the Polish Ministry of Finance announced that compulsory filing by all taxpayers of the new combined JPK_VAT uniform control file and VAT return structure has been deferred to 1 October 2020 due to compliance challenges arising from coronavirus, according to a Gazeta Prawna report. It was previously deferred to 1 July as […]

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the European Commission has proposed to defer the application of the VAT e-commerce package from 1 January 2021 to 1 July 2021. The Commission expects that the European Parliament and Council will soon adopt the proposal.

Spain enacted Decree 15/2020 by which electronic publications become subject to a reduced rate of 4%. This new rate became effective on April 23, 2020 and applies to all books, magazines, newspapers and similar publications issued digitally. The new decree also establishes a temporary exemption until July 2020, of all imports and intra-EU acquisitions of […]

According to the ruling 166579/2020, from 20 April 2020, the version 1.6 of the technical specifications of the FatturaPA introduced by ruling 99922/2020 is now applicable as of 1 October 2020 on a voluntary basis and will be mandatory starting on 1 January 2021. Taxable persons may use the schema attached to version 1.5 of […]

The Ministry of Finance in Vietnam presented a draft Decree to postpone the mandatory adoption of e-invoicing in the country from November 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022, due to the difficulties encountered by local companies to implement on time a compliant e-invoice solution to meet the previous deadline. However, agencies, organizations, and individuals are encouraged […]

A recently published official decision de facto amending the timeline for full Portuguese implementation of the Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement has been published. According to the Despacho 129/2020-XXII, the Portuguese public administration will continue to accept B2G invoices in PDF format until June 2020. Until then, such PDF invoices will be considered legal […]

Israel is planning to introduce a Continuous Transaction Controls reform, likely in the form of mandatory clearance e-invoicing. The proposed CTC model is currently expected to include a direct connection between the Tax Authority and businesses in real time for each transaction. The Israeli Tax Authority is reviewing the proposal and liaising with interested stakeholders to […]

We recently reported that the new “JPK with the declaration” JPK_V7M (monthly) and JPK_V7K (quarterly) periodic VAT reporting files (a combined Uniform Control File and VAT Return) were due to be implemented from 1 April 2020 for taxpayers defined under Polish legislation as being large businesses. However, as part of a new “Anti-Crisis Shield” (Tarcza […]

The German Parliament last week published in its Federal Law Gazette a law to reduce the insurance premium tax applied on drought insurance from 19% to 0.03%. The reduction brings the rate for drought insurance in line with tax rates for other agricultural risks, such as hail, frost, and flood damage.  Discussions in Parliament touched […]

HMRC  has informed Sovos that it is extending the soft landing period for MTD digital links until 1 April 2021, for all taxpayers. The effect of this is that businesses will now have until their first VAT return period starting on or after the 1 April 2021 to have digital links in place.  Our understanding […]

The Portuguese tax authorities have postponed the implementation of their new Stamp Duty reporting system until 2021. The decision has been taken in light of the ongoing coronavirus crisis that led the Portuguese government to declare a State of Emergency. The previous Stamp Duty reporting system will therefore remain in place until the end of […]

The Hungarian Tax Authority announced that the deadline to implement the mandatory real time reporting version 2.0 xsd is postponed from 1 April 2020 to 1 July 2020. It is important to note that 2.0 xsd can already be used live in parallel with Version 1.1 xsd. Official announcement can be found at the following link: https://onlineszamla.nav.gov.hu/home