PostEurop's Position on the European Commission’s proposal for VAT in the digital age

CONTEXT

PostEurop represents 55 Universal Postal Service Providers across Europe and is a restricted (i.e. regional) Union of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The postal sector is a major contributor to, and facilitator of trade within the European Union and globally. The postal network is an open access channel and a vital facilitator of trade linking public administrations, businesses and consumers as well as enabling small business enterprises and social customers to access efficient communications and e- commerce services on a global scale.

Efficient and effective postal services are essential to the social fabric and economic life of the European Union, and as a Service of General Economic Interest (SGEI), plays an important social function: postal operators are there to provide a quality, accessible and affordable universal postal service to all, as defined not only in the European Postal Services Directive, but also as signatories to the Universal Postal Union Treaty to which all countries, including EU Member States, are members.

1. INTRODUCTION

PostEurop and its Members welcome and support the objectives pursued by the VAT in the Digital Age package(1) , that should lead to a more advanced level of standardisation and harmonisation of e-invoicing and digital reporting, combat fraud and reducing administrative burden on businesses and suppliers.

PostEurop thanks the European Commission for the opportunity granted to business operators to provide comments on the proposed measures and underlines that it is prepared to play an active role in this reform, as an active contributor during the subsequent stages.

The proposal to amend the Directive 2006/112/EU(2) is an important step to overcome the fragmentation of the VAT reporting requirements and of the e-invoicing requirements in the EU.

Nevertheless, the proposal also leads to a number of challenges and raises questions that PostEurop would like to address.

In our comments, we focus mainly on one element of the proposal, namely the introduction of an EU digital reporting requirement. A further comment is made in connection with a proposed change within the Import One Stop Shop (i.e. the introduction of the unique consignment number).

Please read the full position here.

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(1) VAT in the Digital Age package

(2) Proposal for a COUNCIL DIRECTIVE amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age - COM/2022/701 final

ABOUT POSTEUROP

POSTEUROP is the association which represents 55 European public postal operators. It is committed to supporting and developing a sustainable and competitive European postal communication market accessible to all customers and ensuring a modern and affordable universal service.

Our Members represent 2 million employees across Europe and deliver to 800 million customers daily through over 175,000 counters.