New EU VAT-Related Obligations for E-commerce Platforms Worldwide: A Qualitative Impact Assessment

Madeleine Merkx, Anne Janssen, Marie Lamensch, Jurian Lock

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The modernization of the EU VAT framework to address the booming development of B2C e-commerce has been one of the flagships of the European Commission 2016 “VAT Action Plan”. With a view to reduce the risk of fraud in B2C e-commerce transactions involving goods, new rules imposing new obligations on platforms (wherever they are established) will be applicable from 1 July 2021. These new obligations include the liability to collect VAT and relevant data on underlying supplies. In this article, the authors provide an in-depth analysis of these new obligations and propose a qualitative assessment of their (expected) impact, in terms of compliance burden and potential risk, on the different types of platforms currently active on the market. With this article the authors seek to demonstrate that the EU VAT framework for e-commerce still needs to be improved and that other jurisdictions should think twice before taking the current approach of the European Union as an example.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)441-480
Number of pages39
JournalWorld Tax Journal
Volume13
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Professor of Taxation at the UCLouvain and the Free University of Brussels and lawyer at the Brussels Bar (Arteo Law). Member of the VAT Expert Group of the European Commission. The author can be reached at [email protected]. Professor of Indirect Taxes at Erasmus University and partner at the Tax Research Center of BDO Netherlands. The author can be reached at [email protected]. PhD candidate at Leiden University. His research, including his contribution to this article, is co-financed by the Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics (DINALOG), from the fund for top consortia for knowledge and innovation from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The author can be reached at [email protected]. Lecturer and PhD researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The author is also employed at the Tax Research Centre of BDO Netherlands. The author can be reached at [email protected].

Publisher Copyright:
© IBFD.

Research programs

  • SAI 2007-05 FA

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