New rules in e-commerce

The European Union (EU) has introduced reforms to the value added tax (VAT) rules that will affect sellers that sell via online marketplaces, from 1 July 2021 the operators of online platforms must familiarise themselves with a new concept: an online marketplace (referred to as an ‘electronic interface’ in the EU VAT law) that facilitates sales will be subject to the so-called deemed supply rules.

This means that such platforms fall under the scope of the same VAT payment obligations as they were the actual sellers. For this they need data that are mainly or fully retained by the enterprises that offer the given product for sale (e.g. the location of the product before dispatching, etc.).

Dr Gergely Bohus, tax consultant at Deloitte explained that it could happen that the businesses offering products for sale provide inaccurate data to the deemed suppliers, who despite their best intentions will then report and pay an incorrect VAT. Who shall be held responsible in such situations? Dr Bernadett Acsai, Deloitte’s retail and food consulting group manager answered this question: it is the online platform that must prove they did everything to the best of their ability to comply with the rules. Unfortunately this won’t be easy, as there is no established legal practice yet.//