Amendment to the VAT Act 2024: notification obligation for payment service providers
The Chamber of deputies has approved a draft amendment to the VAT Act that is to come into effect on 1 January 2024. Amending proposals that have been passed mainly concern the development of case law around tax submissions using prescribed forms. At the same time, the General Financial Directorate has issued its Information on new obligations for payment service providers regarding the reporting of data to the Central Electronic System of Payment Information (CESOP).
The VAT bill is based on changes in EU legislation establishing CESOP. The new legislation imposes an obligation on payment service providers to keep records of cross-border payments and their recipients and to submit the data from these records to the tax administrator. One of the amending proposals clarifies that a notification containing data from the records of cross-border payments and their recipients will be submitted using a prescribed form as defined by the Tax Procedure Code. Thus, the format and essential elements, including the detailed content structure, of the notification will be laid down in a subordinate legislative instrument.
In connection with this, the GFD has published the above Information announcing that the submission of the Notification of Data for the Purposes of CESOP can be tested from 16 October 2023. Payment service providers can already try out this form of submission in the test environment of the financial administration, whose goal is to eliminate any errors before going live.
On its website, the financial administration offers basic information about CESOP and all additional documentation, which includes, e.g., guidelines issued by the European Commission that are not legally binding but provide practical tips.