Once again, the fight against loss of tax revenue is the predominant issue for the coming year. Hungary and the Czech Republic are tightening reporting obligations, Romania is extending the reverse charge scheme and France will be the first EU member state to require taxable persons to use the Direct Debit Scheme. Additionally, some countries are focusing on stimulating the economy. Romania is hoping to achieve this aim by dramatically reducing its VAT rates. Italy is delaying the intended increase in its VAT rates. Meanwhile, Austria and Norway are planning to raise revenue by increasing their VAT rates.

On 16 October 2015, the federate states agreed to the Tax Amendment Act 2015. Accordingly, there are various changes to the German VAT Act: the reverse charge on the supply of construction work on installed operating equipment is affected as well as the supply of products made of iron or steel, public sector taxation and chargeable events in respect of VAT charged incorrectly. With effect as of 1 January 2016, the intrastat threshold will be increased as well.

If a taxable person’s invoice shows an amount of VAT that is too high, he is liable for the payment of the inflated amount in accordance with sec 14c para 1 sentence 1 of the German VAT Act. If the taxable person wants to eliminate the tax liability, according to sec 14c para 1 sentence 2 of the German VAT Act, he must correct the invoice. The Federal Ministry of Finance has now tightened the requirements for eliminating such VAT liability: It now additionally requires the supplier to repay the already collected additional VAT amount to the recipient.