Austria extends TOMS VAT

Austria is to extend the application of its Tour Operator Margin Scheme (TOMS) to apply to VAT registered customers from 1 January 2017 (extended from original 2016 plan).

TOMS is a regime permitted by the European Union VAT Directive to simplify the VAT compliance burden of travel tour operators. Where operators are buying holiday packages across the region, they are exempted from the obligation to VAT register in each country to resell the as holiday packages to their customers. Instead, they paying the full VAT on sales of packages, and deducting the input VAT suffered on the purchases of hotels, transport and other services, the tour operator pays a simple VAT amount based on their profit margin.

The current Austrian version of TOMS only permits the use of the scheme for sales of packages to consumers (B2C). Under the new Tax Law Act 2015, Austrian operators may apply the scheme where they are also selling to other VAT registered entrepreneurs (B2B).