Pilot cross border VAT rulings extended

n 2013 we informed you that 13 EU Member States had agreed to participate in a test case for private VAT ruling requests relating to cross-border situations. Taxable persons planning cross-border transactions between two or more of these participating Member States can ask for such a ruling with regard to the transactions they envisage.

Businesses who want to engage in a complex cross-border transaction can therefore consider to submit their project to the tax administration of their country of residence. As mentioned such a cross border ruling can only be requested if the transaction(s) envisaged are complex and have a cross-border aspect (in 2 or more participating Member States). However, consultation does not guarantee a ruling can be delivered.

The participating Member States are Belgium, Estonia, Spain, France, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

The Commission has recently announced that the EU VAT Forum extended the pilot for another year. The pilot project has also been opened to other Member States than the ones already participating. Finland has already decided to join the 13 other Member States participating so far. Names of other Member States will be added on the Europa-website as soon as they confirm their participation. Simplifying VAT for businesses – particularly Small en Medium Enterprises– is a high priority for the Commission, as reflected in the work underway to reform the VAT system.

So for now the pilot is scheduled to last until the end of 2014. A mid-term review of the experiment will be made in June 2014. If the results are positive, the Commission may recommend to further develop this practice.

For more information including the addresses of where the submit the ruling request, please see the European Commission website .