The AGN Europe Taxation Task Force recently hosted a very successful VAT seminar in London. The event was held at the premises of AGN member firm Dixon Wilson and was presented by Nancy Cruickshanks of UK member firm Shipleys LLP and Magnus Lovén of Swedish member firm Frejs Revisionsbyra.
The subject matter of the seminar, which was attended by over 20 delegates from across Europe, was the EU wide changes to VAT legislation implemented on 1 January 2010.
These changes are designed to simplify the application of VAT in relation to cross border supplies of services and iron out some of the differences in application and interpretation that have arisen in the past.
Although the new rules have been in place for only a short period of time the seminar was able to highlight a number of issues that have already been noted:
- Although there should be fewer instances where cross border supplies of services attract VAT, in practice there remain a number of areas of confusion such as the definition of ‘immovable property’ which can vary depending on the underlying legal regime in each country.
- In spite of efforts to achieve consistency of application there are still many differences in implementation and interpretation within the EU such as whether or not it is a requirement that customers be VAT registered in order to receive cross border supplies of services VAT free.
- Many businesses that have not been required to pay VAT in the past may now be required to do so if they buy in services from foreign suppliers.
Nancy Cruickshanks, who chairs the Taxation Task Force, said that she was very pleased that so many people had travelled to London for the seminar and hoped to be able to do other similar events in the future.
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