What changed

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

P9_TA(2023)0421

on the proposal for a Council directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VATVAT: rules for the digital age

(COM(2022)0701 – C90021/2023 – 2022/0407(CNS))

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

PE746.900

European Parliament legislative resolution of 22 November 2023 on the proposal for a Council directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age (COM(2022)0701 – C9-0021/2023 – 2022/0407(CNS))

(Special legislative procedure – consultation)

Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 12

ArticleDirective 2006/112/EC

Article 194 – paragraph 1

Article 242a – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2

Justification

Clarifying the text

Amendment 79

Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point 17

Directive 2006/122/EC2006/112/EC

Article 271a – paragraph 1

Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point 17

ArticleDirective 2006/112/EC

Article 271a – paragraph 2

Article 5 a (new)

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The European Commission proposed on December 8, 2022 a package of new measures updating the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC), the Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 282/2011 and the Council Regulation on administrative cooperation (EU 904/2010) to adapt to new digital business models and to allow the full use of data generated by digitization.

These proposed directive and regulations are expected to enter into force gradually between January 2024 and January 2028. Your rapporteur believes that these deadlines should, given the delay in the legislative process, be postponed by at least one year overall.

With these measures, the Commission hopes to reduce the VAT gap, better combat VAT fraud, ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and put an end to distortions of competition.

In this respect, your rapporteur stresses the need to respect the principle of proportionality between the objective of combating fraud and the difficulties that might arise in applying the proposed rules to the real life of businesses. The fight against fraud must not be to the detriment of the majority of businesses that work in transparency and good faith.

Similarly, the digital package must respect the fundamental rights to privacy and personal data protection. Therefore, the transmission of partial data can only be used by the competent administrative authority in the context of the fight against VAT fraud only and may not infringe on business secrets and personal data protection.

With the switch to real-time digital declaration based on electronic invoicing, stricter conditions will be imposed on companies carrying out intra-European transactions for all B2B deliveries of goods and services in the name of the fight against fraud.

Your rapporteur underlines the additional burdens that the implementation of this system will create for businesses. He recalls that the impact assessment states “Businesses will bear the costs of the additional administrative burden arising from the introduction of real-time digital declaration. This burden will be higher for micro and small enterprises”. Therefore, your rapporteur believes that these measures should be accompanied by incentives for businesses to encourage the optimal implementation of VAT in the Digital Age.

Your rapporteur believes that the two working day deadline for issuing and declaring invoices is not realistic for businesses, especially SMEs, and should be reviewed to a ten working days basis. Similarly, the deletion of the possibility of issuing summary invoices runs counter to the principles of flexibility and simplicity that govern this proposal.

Your rapporteur stresses that the proposals must be simple, effective and balanced for all parties concerned, in particular for SMEs, VSEs and Not-profit-bodies.

As regards the updating of the VAT rules applicable to passenger transport and short-term accommodation platforms, justified by the emergence of new business models, your rapporteur recalls that these new measures must be clear, non-discriminatory and neutral. He believes that the liability of the "presumed supplier/provider" instead of the "underlying provider" could increase the final price for the consumer.

Finally, your rapporteur considers that the Single registration is one of the improvements most appreciated by EU companies, especially SMEs, which have a real need for simplification of intra-EU declaration procedures. Nevertheless, your rapporteur is concerned that the mandatory reverse charge will lead to an increase in VAT fraud and proposes that an independent study must be carried out on the reduction of VAT fraud in case of taxation of intra-Community supplies of goods and services.

Furthermore, the inclusion of second-hand goods in the UOSS system could be problematic because it is not possible for a marketplace to know the margin made by a third-party seller.

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