Servicios de cumplimiento

As Europe enters a post-Covid recovery era, countries are conscious of the balance between promoting a return to previous rates and retaining reduced rates. Recent events in Ukraine and rising food costs have hampered the progress of countries who had hoped to return to pre-Covid fiscal measures.

To this effect, Ireland has extended the reduced VAT rate for hospitality and tourism through February 2023. This was initially scheduled to expire on 1 September 2022.

Tungsten Network supports all valid Irish rates on our portal.

Many countries require businesses to use certified software to produce the legal invoice in a country. Portugal is a good example.

This means that Tungsten has had to adopt its ‘standard’ offering to customers. We do not create the legal invoice on behalf of suppliers in Portugal, but rather ask the suppliers to attach the legal invoice to our system.

Similarly, Spain has announced that as of 1^st January 2024, only state or VERI*FACTU approved invoicing software may be used to prepare and submit invoices.

Tungsten will need to assess the requirements the Spanish government has proposed for potential certified software providers from 1^st January 2024, when the changes are expected to take place. Tungsten Network is analysing these requirements and seeing how we can best support our Spanish market considering these new requirements.

Tungsten Network is aware of the growing traction of e-invoicing in Spain. We are closely monitoring e-invoicing developments in the country.

The Irish government is actively promoting e-invoicing throughout the country to raise greater awareness around e-invoicing.

To this effect, it has published guidelines which assist suppliers in sending invoices to the public sector.

Ireland has recently stated that it will draw inspiration from the e-invoicing models in other countries as a basis for its own e-invoicing model. It will be interesting to see the developing e-invoicing landscape and the appetite for e-invoicing in the country further to this campaign driving greater recognition of the sector.

In response to rising costs, the Latvian government is proposing to reduce VAT on food. Such a reduction is expected to amount to a deficit of 100 million Euros in the State Budget, following trends across the Europe.

We expect further clarity from the Latvian government regarding specific details around VAT reductions.

On 25 April 2022, Lithuania approved a draft amendment to reduce VAT rates on specific supplies, further to the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

We have published extensive updates on the obligation for taxpayers to report cross-border invoices to the Sistema di Intercambio (SdI), which becomes mandatory from 1^st July 2022.

The Draft Law Decree PNRR 2, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, was approved on 13 April 2022.

This has expanded the scope of the taxpayers now obligated to report their cross-border invoices to the SdI from 1^st July 2022.

Amongst the groups now subject to the e-reporting of cross-border invoices are:

• Taxpayers who adopt the flat rate regime
• Amateur sports associations and third sector entities with a revenue of up to 65,000 Euros

HMRC has announced some new VAT fuel scale charges applying from 1 May 2022. These can be found via the following links:

VAT road fuel scale charges from 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2023 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

https://www.vatupdate.com/2022/04/23/new-vat-fuel-scale-charges-from-1-may-2022/

The Danish government has outlined an ambitious aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030.

To this effect, on 20 April 2022, the Danish government announced some green tax reform measures, including the introduction of a new CO2 tax. This will include a fixed minimum amount per tonne of C02.

The Danish government will implement this across companies in a phased approach, between 2025 and 2030.

A few months ago, we oversaw Poland applying greater autonomy to determine their own VAT rates.

More recently in Switzerland, we can see how the economic measures a country enacts can have a significant effect on the VAT rates a country deploys.

In December 2021, the Swiss Parliament approved the AHV (Old Age and Survivors Insurance) 2021 reform. The measure aims to maintain AHV benefits- but this will come at a cost. Specifically, to meet additional costs for this measure, an increase in the VAT rates has been proposed.

The VAT rate increases are expected in line with the following:

• Standard rate: from 7.7% to 8.1%
• Reduced rate: from 2.5% to 2.6%
• Rate for accommodation: from 3.7% to 3.8%

A referendum is expected in autumn 2022 to approve these rates. If approved, these are expected to take place in 2023.

Tungsten Network will monitor any new tax rates, if approved, in Switzerland and ensure these are implemented as part of our portal solution.

Croatia is following the overwhelming trend both in Europe and beyond to reduce VAT rates on specific supplies. These aim to lower the tax burden on Croat citizens – which is unsurprising given the current inflation, culminating in rising living costs.

The Act on amendment of the Act on the Value Added Tax was published in the official Gazette, No. 39/2022 on 30 March 2022.

The amendments provide a detailed oversight of the main changes outlined by the Croatian government; these can be summarised as follows:

• Reduced rate of 5% applicable to cinema tickets, certain foodstuffs, fertilisers and pesticides
• Extension of the 13% VAT rate for natural gas from CN 2711 11 00 and CN 2711 21 00 and heating from heat stations, including fees related to these deliveries, regardless of who the delivery is made to.

Tungsten Network supports all valid VAT tax rates in Croatia.