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EU: 2015 Place of Supply Changes - How can Deloitte help
From 1 January 2015, supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically supplied services made by EU suppliers to private individuals and non-business customers will be taxable in the Member State of the customer.
This change is the final phase of the EU VAT Package, which introduced new place of supply of services rules for VAT in the EU and new intra-EU VAT refund processes. The first phase of the VAT Package came into force on 1 January 2010.
The one-stop shop or VAT on e-services (VoES) scheme will also be adjusted to align to the new rules with effect from 1 January 2015.
Deloitte can help your business in many ways, tailoring our advice and approach to the specific challenges you have. Below is a selection of what we can offer and have already undertaken for some clients.
Feasibility studies
- Analyse the impact of the 2015 changes on business activities and identify any changes that may need to be implemented to comply with the new rules.
- Provide advice on any additional guidance issued by either the European Commission or by the local tax authorities in the build-up to the change date and highlight any impact this may have on businesses preparation for the new rules.
IT and systems
- Assist with identifying necessary changes to accounting, billing and invoicing systems.
- Advise on the types of information and systems that may need to be implemented to correctly capture the place of supply.
- Review and identify any gaps in current systems, which may be unable to deal with the changes to the rules and consider manual work-around solutions or additional bolt on software where required.
- Testing of systems to ensure that they are compliant with new rules prior to going live.
Compliance
- Identify additional compliance responsibilities that will be created as a result of the new rules.
- Assist with registration for the Mini One-Stop Shop scheme and/or in other Member States where the customers are established.
- Compliance outsourcing using Deloitte’s European Compliance Centre in Belgium
Advisory
- Help identify instances where the changes to the rules could potentially create complex issues for businesses in specific sectors.
- Assist clients in assessing the potential impacts of these changes on profit margins, pricing structures for such supplies and any impact on customer behaviour.
- Provide guidance on VAT implications for contractual terms for any B2C supplies of services affected by the changes.
- Advise on appropriate VAT related terms and conditions for the supply of content through mobile phones or similar devices so there is clarity as to who is required to account for VAT.
- Advise businesses on the advantages or disadvantages of the Mini One-Stop Shop scheme and determine whether this would outweigh any benefits of retaining (or indeed creating) separate VAT registrations in other Member States.
- Advise on practices for determining whether customers are likely to be non-taxable persons and how best to establish and capture where they are located for the purposes of the new rules.
- Assist with determining which return to use to report B2C supplies if a business already has VAT registrations or branches/ fixed establishments in other EU Member States.
- Advise on approaches to valuing bundles of products consisting of both electronic services and goods
- Assist businesses to understand and meet the invoicing requirements that may be required across the different EU Member States.
EU: 2015 Place of Supply Changes
Click each item to access specific sections of the 2015 commentary: