World news
Can we look forward to new VAT rates?
In mid-January, the European Commission submitted a proposal to amend VAT rate rules and adopt a number of VAT measures that should help small and medium-size businesses reduce their administrative burden in connection with cross-border transactions…
OECD proposes new disclosure rules
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an approved global standard for the automatic exchange of information between tax authorities of individual states. It aims to prevent tax evasion and money laundering. Within the CRS, selected information on…
EU removes eight countries from its blacklist
At its January session, ECOFIN crossed off eight countries from the EU tax haven blacklist: South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, Barbados, Grenada, Macao, Mongolia and Tunisia were grey listed instead.
EU responds to challenges of profit taxation in digital economy
On 5 November 2018, ECOFIN adopted conclusions summarised in the document titled “Responding to the challenges of taxation of profits of the digital economy”. They are aimed at defining a common EU approach to the issue, in view of the expected…
MOSS: the future of e-commerce?
At its December session, ECOFIN adopted new VAT rules that should make things easier for e-commerce businesses.
SAC: VAT cannot be levied twice on the same transaction
The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) granted many VAT payers’ Christmas wishes by its favourable ruling regarding the fight against tax fraud. In the FAU case, attracting considerable media attention, the court said no to the concurrence of…
Delivery of goods from EU to consignment stock in Germany not necessarily subject to…
Until now, German tax authorities used to consider the delivery of goods from member states to a consignment stock in Germany as a transfer of goods, requiring the supplier’s registration for VAT in Germany. On the date of taking the goods from the…
ECOFIN meeting: Taxation of digital economy and definitive VAT system
The main tax issues discussed at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council’s October meeting were the taxation of the digital economy and the implementation of a definitive VAT system. The ECOFIN approved a draft directive implementing a new system…
When to expect definitive VAT system for EU?
A long-awaited draft amendment to the VAT Directive, intended to specify the outlines of the definitive VAT system for intra-EU supplies of goods, was published by the European Commission on 4 October 2017.
EU finance ministers discuss new digital economy rules
An informal meeting of the EU’s finance ministers and central bank governors took place in Tallinn in September and addressed, among other things, taxation issues in the context of the digital economy. The ministers looked into new approaches to the…
OECD releases draft update of Model Tax Convention
The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs has just released a draft update of the OECD Model Tax Convention. Neither the Committee on Fiscal Affairs nor the OECD Council have yet approved the update, but some significant parts have already been…
2017 OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines
On 10 July 2017, the long awaited 2017 OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations (2017 Transfer Pricing Guidelines) were released. The new edition counting 612 pages replaces the previous Transfer Pricing…