On July 1, the , a law whose main objective is to overcome barriers to cross-border online sales came into force, under the perspective of “a strategy for Europe’s digital single market”.
Through these new Directives on VAT in electronic commerce, Value Added Tax continues to be settled at the place of delivery of the good when the threshold established by the standard is exceeded (now harmonized throughout the EU), however , the main novelty is that it will be possible to present a single declaration in the country of origin of the services, avoiding the administrative burden of having to obtain a VAT number in each country of shipment of the goods sold.
Additionally, with the consequent harmonization of the amount at 10,000 euros. That is, as long as the amount of the following transactions does not exceed the established amount, it is possible to pay taxes for these operations in a single State applying the tax rate of the country where the goods are shipped. If this amount is exceeded, the applicable tax rate is that of the country of destination.
Companies that sell goods over the Internet to final customers in other Member States and exceed the established threshold will find at their disposal an optional one-stop shop system, One-Stop Shop (OSS), which is intended to be used optionally, although, if If the requirements for this are met, it is advisable to take advantage of the simplification offered by this system so that you do not have to register in each member state of destination. In addition, this new functionality allows the different operators -also those that are established outside the EU- to enter in a single Member State the VAT corresponding to each of the EU countries in which they have made sales.
Undoubtedly, the new regulations on VAT applicable to electronic commerce is a great advance in terms of taxation and a triumph in terms of European harmonization, but it is also true that the regulation that seeks to simplify, far from being simple, entails quite complex when interpreting it, and also, it involves certain nuances that must be taken into consideration, because they are only observable after an in-depth study of the regulations and the explanatory notes published by the European Commission, together with a battery of interpretations and pronouncements of the different Member States.
For example, what happens in the case of dropshipping, that is, sales to final consumers, previously acquiring the goods from suppliers established in other Member States? Or in another case, what happens when the good is sold through a platform specialized in web sales (marketplace), and, during the shipping process, said good makes a stop at a warehouse owned by the marketplace? Both are very common practices that will now deserve a more detailed study after these tax novelties.
With respect to stops during shipment, in the past the Directorate General of Taxes ruled in this regard in certain binding consultations, concluding that the single window system could not be used in distance sales sold to consumers, if the goods stop prior to their arrival at destination, in a warehouse or warehouse of the Marketplace in any Member State, and it is not known in advance who is the recipient of the goods that have stopped in said warehouse. And it is that, in that case, what is known as “transfers” would take place, operations assimilated to deliveries of goods that must be declared in the aforementioned country. On all these issues, for its part, the European Commission has not pronounced itself, neither in the drafting of the regulations, nor in the explanatory notes of the same.
Online sales usually imply stock storage in the warehouses that are distributed in Europe, and as we have mentioned, on some occasions, this circumstance could mean that the Single Window system is not applicable. The same could happen with dropshipping for other reasons.
Therefore, it is convenient that all those companies review their e-commerce operations beforehand, and be aware of the latest modifications because, within a system whose objective is simplification and harmonization, the standard is not easy to interpret, there are many nuances to consider, as well as common practices where the Single Window would not even be applicable, and formal requirements that companies are still unaware of (registration and cancellation of VAT numbers, formal aspects of the declaration forms, etc.).
Taking into account the main objective of the regulations and the achievements in terms of simplification that all the Administrations have announced, many of the entities that have carried out an exhaustive analysis of their e-commerce operations, and the possibilities offered by the new regime, do not They hoped to conclude that, although it is a tax simplification, of course, for the moment, its interpretation and application is not so simple.
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