Update VAT E-commerce 2021

25/01/21

The new EU VAT rules for e-commerce will almost certainly apply as of 1 July 2021 in the Netherlands. Deadlines are however tough.

Dutch implementation VAT E-commerce 2021 package 1 July 2021

The Dutch Parliament aims to discuss and approve the Implementation Act containing the VAT E-commerce 2021 package rules before the 2021 election recess. This is only possible if the Ministry of Finance provides a written answer to the additional questions of the Parliament by 29 January 2021.

If the deadline is not met, it is unclear whether the Act can be approved by the Parliament before 1 July 2021. For now, we expect that the Act will be timely implemented.

Practical guidance from the Ministry and/or the Tax Authorities is usually not published before official approval of the Implementation Act.

IT systems of the Dutch Tax Authorities: emergency facility timely available

The Ministry of Finance issued a letter stating that it is impossible for the Dutch Tax Authorities to have final tools for the One Stop Shop (OSS and iOSS) available on 1 July 2021.

However, they believe that an emergency facility can be made available on time. This facility will require more manual actions, both for the entrepreneur and the Tax Authorities. As such, it is expected that the registration and filing process will not run very smoothly. The Ministry warns that it cannot be excluded that systems will fail, especially when many entities require an (i)OSS registration. No further details about the registration process are available at the moment.