Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 79/2012

of 31 January 2012

laying down detailed rules for implementing certain provisions of Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 concerning administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax

(recast)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 of 7 October 2010 on administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax1 and, in particular Articles 14, 32, 48 and 49 and Article 51(1) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)
To improve and supplement the instruments to combat fraud, Council Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003 of 7 October 2003 on administrative cooperation in the field of value added tax and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 218/922 has been recast and repealed by Regulation (EU) No 904/2010. The rules as they can be found in Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 should be reflected at the level of the acts implementing Regulation (EU) No 904/2010.
(2)
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1925/2004 of 29 October 2004 laying down detailed rules for implementing certain provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003 concerning administrative cooperation in the field of value-added tax3 has been substantially amended. Since further amendments are to be made following the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 and in order to have a single set of rules on the exchange of information it should be recast in the interests of clarity together with Commission Regulation (EC) No 1174/2009 of 30 November 2009 laying down rules for the implementation of Articles 34a and 37 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003 as regards refunds of value added tax under Council Directive 2008/9/EC4.
(3)

In order to facilitate the exchange of information between Member States it is necessary to specify the exact categories of information to be exchanged without prior request, as well as the frequency with which those exchanges are to be made, and the relevant practical arrangements. To the extent that Member States intend to abstain from such exchange, they should notify it to the Commission in accordance with Article 14(1) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010.

(4)

Pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 information shall be communicated between tax authorities as far as possible by electronic means. Consequently, the practical arrangements and technical details should be laid down.

(5)
Practical arrangements should be determined for the provision of information relating to invoicing rules, value added tax (VAT) rates applicable in the context of the special schemes applicable to non-established taxable persons and the additional electronic coded information referred to in Article 9(2) of Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 laying down detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State5.
(6)

In order to ensure that Member States are able to effectively make use of the possibilities to require the information foreseen by certain provisions of Directive 2008/9/EC, it is necessary to specify the relevant harmonised codes to be applied when exchanging the relevant information, including the means through which such exchange should take place, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 904/2010.

(7)
Article 9(2) of Directive 2008/9/EC provides that the Member State of refund may require the applicant to provide additional electronic coded information supplementing the codes set out in Article 9(1) of Directive 2008/9/EC, to the extent that such information is necessary due to any restrictions on the right of deduction under Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax6, or for the implementation of a derogation received by the Member State of refund under Article 395 or 396 of that Directive.
(8)

Pursuant to Article 48(2) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010, the competent authorities of the Member State of refund are to notify by electronic means the competent authorities of the other Member States of any information required by them under Article 9(2) of Directive 2008/9/EC.

(9)

For that purpose, the technical details for the transmission of the additional information required by Member States under Article 9(2) of Directive 2008/9/EC should be determined. In particular, the codes to be used for the transmission of this information should be specified. The codes set out in Annex III to this Regulation have been developed by the Standing Committee on Administrative Cooperation (SCAC) on the basis of the information required by Member States for the purposes of applying Article 9(2) of Directive 2008/9/EC.

(10)
Applicants may be required according to Article 11 of Directive 2008/9/EC to provide a description of their business activity using harmonised codes. For that purpose, the commonly used codes provided for in Article 2(1)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains7 should be employed.
(11)

Article 25 of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 states that the requested authority shall, at the request of the requesting authority, notify the addressee of all instruments and decisions emanating from the administrative authorities and concerning the application of VAT legislation in the Member State in which the requesting authority is established.

(12)

Where a Member State of refund requests the Member State of establishment to notify the applicant of its decisions and instruments for the purposes of the application of Directive 2008/9/EC, for reasons of data protection, it should be possible that such notification be made via the common communication network/common system interface (CCN/CSI) as defined in Article 2(1)(q) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010.

(13)

Rules should be laid down implementing, inter alia, Article 48 of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards the introduction of administrative cooperation and the exchange of information concerning the rules relating to the place of supply of services, the special schemes and the refund procedure for value added tax.

(14)

Finally, it is necessary to establish a list of the statistical data needed for the evaluation of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010.

(15)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Administrative Cooperation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: