Denmark's new domestic reverse-charge VAT rules apply beginning 1 January 2024

Effective 1 January 2024, Denmark will begin applying new rules on local reverse charge for wholesale supplies of telecommunications services.

The rules state that local reverse charge applies when the primary purpose of the telecommunications services purchase is resale, and the purchaser's own consumption of the services is negligible. This means that it is the purchaser who will be required to settle the VAT with the Danish tax authorities.

The rules will only apply to trade between locally established Danish entities and only for trade between VAT-registered businesses.

The rules will apply in all cases where the telecommunications services are resold and the consumption of those services by the purchaser is negligible. This also means that internal transactions within a group of companies (e.g., where the group has a local procurement company) will be covered by the rules.

A business that sells telecommunications services to another business will therefore need to verify that the purchaser is a reseller of telecommunications services, which would mean that reverse charge would apply.

The definition of telecommunications services follows the general definition in the VAT rules and includes in particular the below services:

• Fixed and mobile telephone services for the transmission and switching of voice, data and video, including telephone services with an imaging component (videophone services)
  
  
• Telephone services provided through the internet, including voice over internet protocol (VoIP)
  
  
• Voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification, three-way calling and other call management services
  
  
• Paging services
  
  
• Audiotext services
  
  
• Facsimile, telegraph and telex
  
  
• Access to the internet, including the World Wide Web
  
  
• Private network connections providing telecommunications links for the exclusive use of the client

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

EY Denmark, Copenhagen
 

• Mick Jørgensen
  
  
• Anja G. Dahlgaard

Published by NTD’s Tax Technical Knowledge Services group; Carolyn Wright, legal editor

For a full listing of contacts and email addresses, please click on the Tax News Update: Global Edition (GTNU) version of this Alert.