Digital package of VAT

As of July 1, 2021, significant changes in the area of VAT have come into effect as part of the implementation of the so-called VAT digital package.

The provision of Section 3c UStG previously known as “mail order delivery” will now be renamed “intra-community distance selling”. The place of supply will continue to be where the goods are located at the end of the transport or dispatch in the case of supplies to a group of customers who are not required to subject an intra-Community acquisition to taxation.

With regard to intra-Community supplies to non-entrepreneurs, the main changes are as follows:

The supply threshold will be replaced by a de minimis threshold of EUR 10,000, which is uniform for all Member States and which, together with the already known de minimis threshold for supplies to non-entrepreneurs, will apply to other supplies made by electronic means. This de minimis limit is not to apply per country, but for the total of all sales covered by these regulations.

Whereas under the previous mail order regulation, the supplying trader also had to register and be taxed directly in the respective Member State of destination under certain conditions, the “mini-one-stop store” regulation, which previously only applied to certain other supplies, will now be extended to:

  • Supplies within a Member State via an electronic interface, and
  • the taxation obligations arising from these intra-Community distance sales via a national electronic portal without having to register in the respective country of destination.intra-Community distance sales and all services carried out at the place of consumption to non-entrepreneurs established or resident in the Community territory

extended (so-called one-stop shop).

This means that the supplying trader can handle the taxation obligations arising from these intra-Community distance sales via a national electronic portal without having to register in the respective country of destination.

Beyond these new regulations relevant for German entrepreneurs, there will be further changes, which, however, essentially require that the service is performed by a third-country entrepreneur or that the goods at least enter the EU from the third country:

For example, a new Import-One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) will be introduced for distance sales of goods in consignments with a material value of up to EUR 150 from the third country territory.

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