On 6th May 2015, the European Commission announced its Strategy for the EU Digital Single Market. In this context the Commission should make legislative proposals to modernise the VAT for cross-border e-commerce and reduce the administrative burden of businesses arising from different VAT regimes.
The Commission will make legislative proposals in 2016 to reduce the administrative burden on businesses arising from different VAT regimes including:
- Extending the current single electronic registration and payment mechanism to cross-border online sales of physical goods.
- Introducing a common EU-wide simplification measure - VAT threshold - to help small start-up e-commerce businesses.
- Allowing for home country controls including a single audit of cross-border businesses for VAT purposes.
- Removing the VAT exemption for the importation of small consignments from suppliers in third countries.
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