News articles written by Christoph Zenner

Belgian Minister of Finance confirms intention to mandate B2B e-invoicing

9 November 2021

In his policy note, the Belgian Minister of Finance, Mr Van Peteghem, confirmed the intention to gradually make electronic invoicing mandatory for businesses-to-business (B2B) transactions. The measure is aimed at reducing the Belgian VAT gap, which is the difference between the expected VAT revenues and the VAT revenues that are effectively collected. For the year

Solutions for mandate e-invoicing and Making Tax Digital

27 November 2018

The challenge  As you may be well aware by now, as from 1 January 2019, e-invoicing becomes mandatory for transactions carried out between taxpayers resident or established for VAT purposes in Italy. This means that as from this date, your IT solution needs to exchange e-invoices in a specified XML format, bidirectionally through the government run Interchange System (so-called

No VAT deduction on deal fees for an intended (not realized) sale of shares

22 November 2018

The holding company C&D Foods Acquisition, part of the Arovit group, incurred deal fees in relation to an envisaged but not realised sale of all shares of its sub-subsidiary. C&D Foods acquisition provided taxable services to its sub-subsidiary and claimed input VAT deduction on the costs incurred. The CJEU referred to the Becker case (C-104/12,

VAT deduction on deal fees for an aborted transaction

18 October 2018

Ryanair incurred considerable deal fees in relation to an envisaged takeover of a competitor. The takeover failed. Ryanair claimed input VAT deduction on the professional costs incurred based on its intention to perform taxable transactions with input VAT credit. In relation to deal fees, generally, input VAT deduction is allowed if management services against consideration

VAT quarterly advance payments shall be abolished as from 1 April 2017

27 January 2017

In the context of a simplification of the Belgian VAT compliance, the Belgian Finance Minister has announced the abolishment of the mandatory monthly advance payments on VAT for quarterly VAT declarants. The Royal Decree will be published shortly and should take effect as from 1 April 2017. Background Currently, quarterly VAT declarants are subject to

Commission proposes new VAT rules to support e-commerce and online businesses in the EU

2 December 2016

Yesterday, the EU Commission has introduced a series of proposals to simplify the VAT rules for e-commerce and reduce compliance on online sales of goods. The proposals include: Broadening of the One-Stop-Shop system to companies selling goods online (distance sales); Thresholds for cross-border sales of electronic services; Removal of the VAT exemption for small value