Denmark obliges payment providers to supply credit card data

The Danish tax authorities have been granted powers to request credit card payments data to help detect VAT fraud by foreign online sellers.

Payment providers issuing credit cards to Danish consumers will be obliged to provide on request credit card statements and supporting data. The tax office will be permitted to use the information to detect VAT fraud by foreign online retailers for goods and services. The tax authorities will be looking for payments to foreign e-retailers who are not properly VAT registered, or under declaring sales. In particular, the authorities will be seeking to identify e-commerce merchants that have passed the distance selling threshold into Denmark, DKK 280,000 (approx. €35,000) per annum. Beyond this, the non-resident merchant is required to VAT register in Denmark, charge and remit local VAT.

The EU member states have already agreed to oblige payment providers to provide tax authorities with detailed transactional data from 2022.