World news
New digital economy taxation rules
In March, the European Commission issued two draft directives on the digital economy: the first one proposes to introduce a tax on digital services; the second one the concept of a virtual permanent establishment.
Tax planning may be subject to reporting duty
In mid-March, the ECOFIN Council reached political agreement on the rules requiring intermediaries (tax advisors, attorneys, other advisors) or taxpayers to disclose information on potentially aggressive cross-border tax planning arrangements. This…
EU Court of Justice rules in Deister Holding and Juhler Holding cases
At the end of 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a long-awaited judgment in the joined cases Deister Holding and Juhler Holding, concerning the application of the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive and involving a dispute…
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.
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…
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…
First country-by-country reports handed in – what’s next?
The first round of country-by-country reporting (CbCR) is over. Each group subject to the reporting duty had to provide selected financial and non-financial data, for the group and broken down by individual jurisdictions, in a special format.
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…
MOSS: the future of e-commerce?
At its December session, ECOFIN adopted new VAT rules that should make things easier for e-commerce businesses.
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…
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…