EU postpones new rules on VAT and international reporting due to coronavirus crisis

The European Commission has decided to postpone the entry into force of two EU taxation measures to take account of the difficulties that businesses and member states are facing at the moment with the coronavirus crisis.

The VAT e-commerce package will be delayed by six months. These rules will apply as of 1 July 2021 instead of 1 January 2021.

Richard Asquith vice-president global indirect tax at tax technology firm Avalara said the proposal made sense given that ‘countries like Germany and the Netherlands were warning that they were behind on the reforms even before Covid-19 took hold in March.’

In addition the commission is to defer some deadlines for filing and exchanging information under the Directive on Administrative Co-operation (DAC6). Member states will have three extra months to exchange information on financial accounts of which the beneficiaries are tax residents in another member...