New EU obligations for PSPs regarding information they hold on the application of VAT on payment transactions

Published

Aug 12 2020

Written By

Montserrat Turrado

Partner
Spain

I am a partner and head of Bird & Bird's Tax department in the Madrid office.

Practices

Sectors

Financial Services

Regions

Western Europe

On 18 February, the Council of the European Union approved a series of rules (including a Directive and a Regulation) aimed at facilitating the detection of tax fraud for VAT purposes in cross-border payment transactions.

To read more about these new obligations and for a summary of the requirements, see our alert of 25 Feb here.

How do these new information obligations affect PSPs authorised in Spain?

Although the reporting of information relating to payment services is a new information obligation at EU level, in Spain there is already a similar obligation concerning transactions carried out by entrepreneurs or professionals who are members of the system for collection management through credit or debit cards (Form 170). Thus, as from 2011, PSPs acting as acquirers are obliged to provide an annual summary of the transactions concluded by entrepreneurs or professionals adhering to the system for collection management through credit or debit cards, provided that the annual amount of such collections for each entrepreneur or professional exceeds 3,000 euros.

To view a comparison of the main differences identified between the Form 170 in force in Spain and the future information obligation of the European Union, click here.

In order to develop the obligations contained in the referred Directive, the Spanish Tax Administration may approve a new tax information return or, alternatively, extend the scope foreseen for the current Form 170.

In any case, the new obligations contained in the aforementioned Directive will not represent a novelty for certain PSPs located in Spain, as they have been obliged to provide this type of information to the Tax Authorities (with a different scope, as described above) since 2011.

For more information on the above or to consult the texts of the new Directive and Regulation, you can access the following link.