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Electronically recording sales is accompanied by several administrative burdens. Furthermore, the main reason for the introduction of electronically recording sales- cash payment / sales- are decreasing. In fact, non-cash payments are projected to reach 80% by 2025, further reducing the need for electronically recording sales. This phenomenon is taking hold not just within the parameters of the EU but globally too.

To this effect, the proposal to abolish the electronic sales recording has been approved by the Czech government.

It is expected that the Act on the Registration of Sales, which introduced the obligation for electronic sales recording, will shortly be cancelled.

A Royal Decree has been published outlining the modalities regarding the obligation for entrepreneurs in the context of public contracts and concession contracts (B2G).

Below are a few key timeframes regarding e-invoicing obligations:

• 1 October 2022: public contracts and concessions the estimated value of which is less than European threshold
• 1 April 2023: public contracts and concessions the estimated value of which is less than EUR 30 000 excluding value added tax, but less than European threshold
• 1 October 2023: all public contracts and concessions

The Official Royal Decree can be found via the following link.

Recent events in Ukraine has led to a surge in energy and electricity prices.

To this effect, the Irish government will cut VAT on electricity and energy from 13.5% to 9%.

This will take place from 1 May 2022 to 31 October 2022 and is estimated to come at a cost of 46 million Euros.

The UK Treasury is considering whether a 1% online sales tax needs to be applied on e-commerce goods and services.

The e-commerce trade has seen a radical increase – fuelled significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic- and it is no coincidence that the government is reviewing its fiscal measures at a time when e-commerce has grown exponentially over the past 2 years.

An open consultation to this effect has been launched from 25 February 2022 until 20 May 2022.

The proposal of the online sales tax aims to rebalance the taxation of the retail sector between online and in-store retail.

Information on the public consultation policy can be found via the following link.

We communicated in 2020 that the UK has reduced its VAT rate for the hospitality sector from 20% to 5%.

From 1^st April 2022, the VAT rate will revert to 20%, fuelling the indication that the United Kingdom is entering a post-recovery era of the pandemic.

In Portugal, under certain circumstances, a PDF invoice can qualify as an electronic invoice. The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that many countries around the world have had to deal with challenges in the management of their fiscal operations. Part of these challenges have involved governments acknowledging that they must provide some concessions to taxpayers.

During much of Covid, PDF invoices were made available to clients, despite not meeting the stringent requirements to qualify as an invoice.

During the following periods, it was / is permitted that PDFs can qualify as e-invoices, despite not meeting stringent requirements:

• April, May and June 2020;
• 9 November 2020 to 31 December 2021;
• 1 January 2022 to June 30 2022.

This means that up to 30 June 2022, PDFs can be accepted as e-invoices without the need to meet any specific requirements.

At all other times, the PDF must be digitally signed to be accepted as an e-invoice.

Rising electricity costs has been linked to the re-opening of the economy after Covid- 19. Recent events in Russia / Ukraine has also meant that supplies of natural gas from Russia have been interrupted.

The Spanish tax authorities have responded to rising costs. The reduction in the VAT rate for electricity to 10% will be extended to 30 June 2022. At this point, the rate will revert to 21%.

Countries are constantly motivated to make their tax processes more transparent and less cumbersome.

To this effect, Spain has introduced the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DA7).

This will help to facilitate the exchange of information on income generated by sellers on digital platforms.

Authorities can confirm when tax should be paid, but the automating of the process will result in less of an administrative burden on digital platforms.

Developments in the B2B e-invoicing sphere are gaining increasing momentum in Spain.

Spain published a Royal Draft Decree on 21 February 2022 in respect of mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Spain.

The draft decree outlines the obligations for taxpayers to comply with the mandate from 1 January 2024.

Amongst the requirements outlined in the technical specifications are the requirements for invoices to include a specific hash.

Spain is a key market for Tungsten Network. We are closely following B2B e-invoicing developments in Spain.

Our recent compliance updates have shown a sharp increase in countries enacting legislation with a ‘green’ agenda. More specifically, we have seen the introduction of the Plastic Packaging Tax in the United Kingdom from 1 April 2022.

Spain is now promoting a similar incentive. On 9 April 2022, Spain published Law 7/2022 on Waste and Contaminated Soils. This is being introduced to fight climate change and for the preservation of the marine environment.

To achieve this, specifically, Spain is seeking to transpose the following 2 European EU Directives:

• Directive 2018/851, which aims to modify the Waste Framework Directive
• Single-Use Plastic Directive 2019/904, which aims to alleviate the environmental impact of certain plastic products.

Aligning with EU regulations is viewed as the most effective way to achieve these goals.