Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 as regards the place of supply of services

Article 397 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax ("the VAT Directive") provides that ‘the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, shall adopt the measures necessary to implement this Directive’. On that basis, the Council adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 ("the VAT Implementing Regulation"), setting out rules on how to apply certain provisions of the VAT Directive and also enshrining in law a number of guidelines agreed by the VAT Committee since 1977.

Large parts of the VAT Implementing Regulation relate to changes to the rules on the place of supply of services introduced in 2008 (by the "VAT Package"). Some of those changes need further clarification, in particular those concerning telecommunications, broadcasting or electronic services supplied to non-taxable persons, which from 2015 become taxable in the Member State in which the customer is established, has his permanent address or usually resides. Suppliers of such services will need to identify and account for VAT in that Member State.

Measures have already been taken to implement the special schemes for those suppliers who are not established in the Member State of taxation. Further measures are needed to ensure that the rules governing the place of supply of these services are applied uniformly. These measures should be adopted by the Council as soon as possible and certainly by the end of 2013, in order to give businesses and the Member States sufficient time to prepare for the changes.

This proposal and the definitions it contains do not preclude the outcome of ongoing discussions on applying reduced VAT rates to online products and services.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)763: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:763:FIN

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