Aktualni vyvoj v oblasti DPH u nasich sousedu

Current VAT developments in our neighbours

Electronic invoicing is a major topic in many EU countries at the moment. We would like to draw your attention to the latest developments in our nearest neighbours.

Germany

The German Ministry of Finance has recently submitted a draft amendment to the local VAT Act for comment, which aims to gradually introduce mandatory e-invoicing for local B2B transactions. According to the explanatory memorandum, this is the first step on the road to further digitalisation of VAT reporting. The new rules should apply from 1 January 2025 and the Ministry of Finance has now invited SMEs to comment on whether this date is feasible for them. Discussed would be entities or transactions that could be exempted from the amendment (e.g. small amounts/tickets).

Although Germany is a bit ahead of the planned amendment to the VAT Directive called ViDa[1], the current draft amendment is based on the same legislation as ViDa (already in force Directive 2014/55/EU and the invoicing standard CEN 16931) and therefore there are no contradictions.

Poland

In Poland, on the other hand, a major amendment to SLIM VAT 3 is pending, which introduces many changes. After repeated postponements, the earliest possible effective date is 1 July 2023, but even this is very uncertain. For example, the amendment increases the threshold for mandatory VAT registration, reduces penalties for voluntary correction of errors, simplifies invoicing and binding assessment rules, etc.

If you do business in Poland or Germany and the new rules affect you, we will be happy to check specific situations and procedures with our colleagues in these countries.

Authors:

Jevgenija Bajzíková

Pavol Bezek

[1] Germany asked the European Commission under Article 395 of the VAT Directive to introduce mandatory e-invoicing before the European Commission published its ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) proposal, which proposes the voluntary introduction of e-invoicing from 2024 and the mandatory introduction of e-invoicing from 2028 in all EU Member States (see our alert HERE)