Dear Foreign Readers,
We have already informed you by email about the obligation to report bank accounts to the financial administration by 30.11.2021.
Now we bring you other interesting facts from the amendment to the VAT Act that might be of interest to you.
The extension of the liability for unpaid VAT – the addition of a presumption in relation to the notification obligation of bank accounts
A new presumption is being introduced which constitutes sufficient grounds for the tax authorities to conclude that the customer knew or could have known that the supplier would not pay the tax in whole or in part on the goods or services supplied to him/her. This is, for example, a situation where the customer has paid an equivalent to an undisclosed bank account of the supplier, where the supply are non-exempt goods and the person liable to pay tax on the goods is the supplier (so not a reverse charge) and the supplier has not paid the tax when it is due. For these purposes, the date of payment shall be deemed to be the date on which the instruction is given to the payment service provider.
If the presumption arises, the tax administrator (the supplier’s tax office) may require the customer to pay the tax shown on the invoice which the supplier has not paid in whole or in part. The tax to be paid by the customer on behalf of the supplier is payable within 8 days from the date of receipt of the decision (this is the amount of tax on the invoice).
The liability obligation shall arise on the basis of a decision which shall be enforceable upon expiry of 8 days from the moment of delivery to the customer. The guarantor shall have the right to appeal against this decision, which shall have no suspensive effect.
On appeal, the person who has been ordered to pay the unpaid tax is given the opportunity to rebut the presumption of knowledge that the tax will not be paid.
Note that sufficient grounds for liability for tax are defined in section 69(14)(a) and (c), and these are defined as rebuttable presumptions.
How can the customer avoid having to prove in tax proceedings that he/she did not know and could not have known that the supplier would not pay the tax?
The customer has the following two ways to do this:
- The payer shall check the account number to which the supplier requests payment with the account numbers published on the website of the FR SR when making the payment (new reporting obligation of payers)
- The payer can use the so-called “split payment”.
Split payment – a special way of paying VAT on an invoice directly to the tax authorities – avoiding liability
Following the extension of the institute of liability for unpaid VAT and changes in the reporting obligation of bank accounts, a special method of payment of VAT on invoices directly to the tax administratoris being introduced.
For example, if the supplier has an unrecognized bank account on the invoice, the customer can pay the invoice without VAT and transfer the tax directly to the supplier’s special account held with the tax administrator (hence the introduction of a new record listing the special taxpayer accounts (TPAs) of all VAT payers). This mechanism can be used in all cases where the customer is concerned about the application of the liability for tax or the fulfillment of the presumption that was added as part of the extension of the institute of liability for unpaid VAT. The customer is obliged to mark the payment as if it were paid by the supplier. The payment will also need to be marked with a variable symbol according to the current MFSR decree.
In addition to the above-mentioned changes, the amendment to the VAT Act also concerns the following areas:
- changes in the registration obligation – deletion of registration cards
- changes to special arrangements based on the OSS principle
- delivery of the beverage in a backed-up packaging
- specifying the correction of the accounted deduction
- changes to the VAT law triggered by the transposition of EU directives (EU Council Directive 2019/2235 and EU Council Directive 2021/1159)
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
