By Toon Hasselman, EJP Accountants & Adviseurs
In my VAT practice, I have to deal with cross-border activities on almost a daily basis. These activities range from a simple sui generis B2B service, a straightforward intracommunity transaction with ordinary goods to more complex ones, such as the supply of a so-called “freeze tunnel” to a Belgian french fries factory (factory) by a Dutch business (trader) and by a Dutch construction company (constructor), and delivered on location in Belgium.
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By Manfred Leitinger and Antonio Lukic, Prodinger Leitinger & Partner
On 30 June, the Austrian Parliament aimed to pass a new law reducing the VAT rate to 5%. It was meant to affect all revenues generated from selling beverages and meals, meaning firms with a hospitality trade license. But only one day before the law came into effect, the parliamentary session turned out to also grant tax reliefs to the entire hotel industry, including the supply of accommodation.
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By Artur Plutowski, EFS Group Sp. z o.o.
The Standard Audit File for Tax (SAF-T) is a concept developed by the OECD and adopted by some EU Members (e.g. Austria, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland). It is designed to provide tax authorities with reliable accounting data, exported from an accounting system, for a specific time period, easily readable by virtue of its standardisation of layout and format.
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By Steve McCrindle, Haines Watts
The UK has always zero-rated printed matter, including books, booklets, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, newspapers, journals and periodicals (which include magazines), and children’s picture and painting books. It was HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) policy that zero-rating of VAT only applied to ‘goods’ and not the e-book equivalent, which is a ‘service’. This had been the status quo in the UK for some time.
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By Ingo Prang, KPP Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH
One of the most important measures of the COVID-19 economic stimulus package adopted by the German Federal Government is the temporary reduction in VAT rates from 19% to 16% (standard VAT) and from 7% to 5% (reduced VAT) respectively. This measure applies from 01 July 2020 to 31 December 2020. The same applies in a mirror image from 01 January 2021, when these temporary reductions are removed.
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By Eddie Lee, Robert Yam & Co.
Generally, e-commerce is a growing market, with many countries in Asia, including Singapore, accelerating the e-commerce push. This refers to the growing trend of online transactions for the supply of physical goods, digitised goods, and services between two or more contractual parties. Many tax authorities around the world, including the IRAS in Singapore, are keen to tap on this growing source of tax revenue.
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By Carla Bendeman, Nolands
On 15 March 2020, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs declared a national state of disaster in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A customs duty rebate and/or a VAT exemption, as summarised below, became operational and provides for the relief of distress of persons impacted by the pandemic.
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By Brigitte Jakoby, Jakoby Dr Baumhof
The European Commission has initiated formal infringement proceedings against Germany regarding the new German legislation on the liability for operators of online marketplaces on 10 October 2019. The new rules came into force on 01 January 2019.
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By Valeria Khmelevskaya, KBK Accounting
Starting from 2019, new rules for calculation and paying VAT were introduced for foreign B2B providers of electronically supplied services (ESS), foreseeing obligatory tax registration and direct VAT payment via VAT-offce, available under lkioreg.nalog.ru/en. The previously applied reverse-charge procedure is not possible based on the current provisions of the Russian Tax Code.
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By Steve McCrindle, Haines Watts
“Civil” tax fraud investigations by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are categorised as Code of Practice 8, for which the punishment is a financial penalty (or penalties).
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