Proposal for a Council Implementing Decision amending Decision 2009/790/EC in order to authorise Poland to extend the application of a special measure derogating from Article 287 of Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax

Pursuant to Article 395(1) of Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (hereafter ‘the VAT Directive’), the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise any Member State to apply special measures for derogation from the provisions of that Directive in order to simplify the procedure for collecting VAT or to prevent certain forms of tax evasion or avoidance.

By letter registered with the Commission on 23 December 2014, Poland requested an authorisation to continue to exempt taxable persons whose annual turnover is no higher than the equivalent in national currency of €30,000 at the conversion rate on the day of its accession. In accordance with Article 395(2) of the VAT Directive, the Commission informed the other Member States by letters dated 6 February 2015 of the request made by Poland. By letter dated 9 February 2015, the Commission notified Poland that it had all the information necessary to consider the request.

From the information provided by Poland, it appears that 103,617 taxable persons with turnover between €10,000 and €30,000 benefited from VAT exemption as a result of the application of the measure and it has led to an estimated reduction of the overall amount of the state budget revenues from VAT of approximately 0.32% in 2013. It is therefore proposed to extend the derogation for another period until the earliest of 31 December 2018 or the entry into force of a Directive on the annual turnover thresholds below which taxable persons may be exempt from VAT.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)231: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:231:FIN

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