Directive 2019/1995 - Amendment of Directive 2006/112/EC as regards provisions relating to distance sales of goods and certain domestic supplies of goods - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 310/1

Council Directive 2006/112/EC (3) as amended by Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 (4) provides that where a taxable person facilitates, through the use of an electronic interface such as a marketplace, platform, portal or other similar means, distance sales of goods imported from third territories or third countries in consignments of an intrinsic value not exceeding EUR 150 or the supply of goods within the Community by a taxable person not established within the Community to a non-taxable person, the taxable person who facilitates the supply shall be deemed to have received and supplied the goods himself. As that Directive splits a single supply into two supplies, it is necessary to determine to which of those supplies the dispatch or transport of the goods should be ascribed in order to properly determine their place of supply. It is also necessary to ensure that the chargeable event of those two supplies occurs at the same time.

Since a taxable person who facilitates through the use of an electronic interface the supply of goods to a non-taxable person in the Community may deduct, in accordance with existing rules, the value added tax (VAT) paid to suppliers not established in the Community, there is a risk that the latter might not pay the VAT to the tax authorities. To avoid that risk, the supply from the supplier selling goods through the use of an electronic interface should be exempt from VAT, while that supplier should be granted the right to deduct the input VAT which he paid in respect of the purchase or import of the goods supplied. For that purpose, the supplier should always be registered in the Member State where he acquired or imported those goods.

Furthermore, suppliers who are not established in the Community, who make use of an electronic interface to sell goods, might hold stock in several Member States and might, in addition to intra-Community distance sales of goods, supply goods from that stock to customers in the same Member State. Currently, such supplies are not covered by the special scheme for intra-Community distance sales of goods and for services supplied by taxable persons established within the Community but not in the Member State of consumption. In order to reduce the administrative burden, those taxable persons who facilitate the supply of goods to non-taxable persons in the Community through the use of an electronic interface, who are deemed to have received and supplied the goods themselves, should also be allowed to use this special scheme to declare and pay VAT for those domestic supplies.

To ensure consistency in terms of the payment of VAT and import duty upon the importation of goods, the time period for the payment of import VAT to customs where the special arrangements for the declaration and payment of import VAT are used should be aligned to that laid down in respect of customs duty in Article 111 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5).

In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the...