New regulations for 2018

VAT Directive Modification: harmonisation and simplification of certain rules in intra-EU operations, applicable from 1 January 2020

por la que se modifica la Directiva 2006/112/CE en lo que se refiere a la armonización y la simplificación de determinadas normas del régimen del impuesto sobre el valor añadido en la imposición de los intercambios entre los Estados miembros.(DOUE, 07-diciembre-2018)

On December 7, Council Directive (EU) 2018/1910, of December 4, 2018, amending Council Directive 2006/112/EC (VAT Directive) introducing improvements, is published in the OJEU, applicable from January 1, 2020 , aimed at harmonizing and simplifying the provisions for the application of the exemption in intra-community operations, in reserve stock agreements and in chain operations.

1. Sale of reserve stock or consignment sales: simplification (Art. 17.a, 243.3 of the VAT Directive)

   The provision for applying the exemption in transfers of call-offs stock to another Member State has been simplified. At present, transfers of these assets give rise to an operation that is comparable to an intra-Community acquisition in the Member State of arrival, followed by a domestic delivery that requires the identification of the supplier for the purposes of VAT in the Member State of arrival. As of January 1, 2020, these operations will be considered as a single intra-Community operation provided that the supplier does not have a permanent establishment in the Member State of arrival and already knows the VAT identification of the person to whom these stocks will be delivered at a later stage. In other words, they will not be considered a transfer of assets and the subsequent domestic delivery, rather an exempt intra-Community supply in the Member State of origin and an intra-Community acquisition in the Member State of arrival, with the taxpayer considered the acquirer of the stocks.

   For the application of the exemption in the intra-community delivery by the supplier, it is mandatory to keep a Register of 'reserve stocks' transferred in which the identification of the taxpayer who acquires the goods is recorded, and compliance with a period of 12 months is required for the goods to be delivered to the business to whom they were intended.

2. Chain operations: harmonisation of exempt deliveries (Art. 36a of the VAT Directive)

   In chain operations, which entail successive deliveries of goods subject to a single intra-Community journey (from supplier to the intermediary and from the latter to the customer), a common standard applies for determining the delivery in the chain of transactions to which the transport is allocated, to avoid different approaches between Member States.

   The exempt intra-Community supply will be attributed only to the “intermediary operator” , provided that this has communicated to the supplier the identification number for VAT purposes in the Member State of departure of the goods . Otherwise, the only exempt delivery will be the delivery by the supplier.

   “intermediary operator” shall mean a supplier in the chain other than the first supplier, who dispatches or transports the goods, either itself or through a third party acting on its behalf.

3. NIF-VAT and recapitulative statements (Art. 138a, 262 of the VAT Directive)

   The inclusion of the buyer’s identification number for the purpose of the VAT Code in the VAT information exchange system (VIES) will be a material, informal condition for the exemption to be applied. In other words, the recipient having an NIF-VAT registered in VIES and the provider having submitted to the recapitulative information form for intra-Community operations to the tax authorities will be considered a material requirement for the intra-community delivery of goods to be exempt, unless the latter can justify all shortcomings in relation to the recapitulative statement before the competent tax authorities.

This Directive must be transposed into law by the Member States.