EU VAT reforms 2016

The new Slovakian presidency of the European Council has outlined some of its key EU VAT reform priorities, following on from the European Commission’s 2016 VAT Action Plan.

The new initiatives to be detailed by the end of 2016 include:

• Extending the e-services single EU VAT registration portal to e-commerce goods, including a low registration threshold
• Removal of the low-value consignment VAT import relief
• Single, cross border VAT audits
• Reforms of reduced VAT rates for e-books, newspapers and periodicals
• Temporary use of the domestic reverse charge in vulnerable sectors for transactions above a certain threshold
• Final proposal for the treatment of cross-border intra-community supplies
• Conclusion on a VAT administrative and recovery agreement with Norway