Raise your hand if you have any certainty of when recharges of costs between a branch and its head office fall outside the scope of VAT. Some time ago, we would have been pretty confident to regard such intra-entity ‘services’[1] – i.e., transactions between a branch and its head office – as falling outside the scope…
Article 59a of the VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax) was implemented into the Spanish domestic legislation through Article 70(2) of the Spanish VAT Law (Law No. 37 of 28 December 1992 on value added tax). This article contains a particular place of supply rule,…
Article 59ab of the VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax) was implemented into the Spanish domestic legislation through Article 70(2) of the Spanish VAT law (Law No. 37 of 28 December 1992 on value added tax). As is well known, this article contains a special…
On 10 March 2022, the Spanish Tax Administration issued a ruling concerning the VAT treatment of the transfer, through an online internet auction, of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that grant their purchasers certain rights of use (hereinafter: ‘the Ruling’).[1] The Spanish Tax Administration provides through this ruling a comprehensive analysis of the taxation for VAT of…
On 9 April 2022, Law 7/2022 of 8 April on waste and contaminated soil for a circular economy (“LRSC”) was finally published. This law responds to the obligation to transpose into the Spanish domestic law the measures derived from Directive 2018/851/EU (Waste Framework Directive) and Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain…
Legend has it that a medieval hero of Spain, the Castilian knight El Cid, won a battle after death when his wife strapped his dead body to his horse, knowing that his reputation as an invincible warlord would make his enemies run away in fear. Something similar is happening to Eqiom: while our tax authorities…
The present article explores some concrete application cases of Big Data in Tax Administrations (TAs). It then formulates some ideas for its possible expansion in the near future, considering both advantages and disadvantages. 1. Big Data The concepts of Big Data, data analytics and artificial intelligence are not new. Still, some technological advances have made…
(Forthcoming: Intertax, vol. 49, 2021, issue 6/7) The Spanish digital services tax (hereinafter DST)[1] came into force 16 January 2021 replicating the European draft directive except for some minor deviations. In essence, it applies a 3% tax on the revenues obtained by taxpayers as a result of the supply of certain digital services to users…
Introduction Article 11 of the VAT Directive allows EU Member States (MS) to regard as a single taxable person a group of persons established in their territory who, while legally independent, ‘are closely bound to one another by financial, economic and organisational links’. The lack of further specification about how this provision should be interpreted…
The Champions League is back in town and tonight, its iconic hymn echoes through the speakers of Europe’s greatest clubs’ mostly empty stadiums: “Die Meister! Die Besten! Les grandes équipes! The champions!” To my personal delight, I’ve always found football more fun than I found it to be important. Like every year, my favourite and local FC…
The Revenue Agency confirms the exemption of income derived abroad by foreign maritime employees who are tax residents of Italy The Italian Revenue Agency has recently issued a ruling (No. 134/2020) clarifying that the income derived by a Spanish citizen (and Italian-tax resident) maritime employee working aboard a ship flying a non-Italian flag for more…
In its judgment of January 21, 2020 (Santander case, available here), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) not only prevented the Spanish Central Tax Tribunal (Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central – TEAC) from requesting a preliminary ruling due to its lack of juridical independence (para. 77), but it also recalled its obligation to ensure that EU law…
The Spanish government approved, on 18 February 2020, a bill for a digital service tax (DST) for discussion by the parliament[1]. The current government has a majority consensus on the new tax with the rest of the political parties, and it is, therefore, very likely to pass the bill. Background: EU Proposal The Spanish Digital…
The judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the withholding tax exemption provided by the Interest and Royalties Directive (available here – the ‘IRD judgment’) and the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (available here – ‘the PSD judgment’) on February 26, 2019 (‘the Danish cases’) have raised many issues to discuss. As some authors have pointed…
