From 1 January 2015, the provision of telecommunications, radio-broadcasting, television and electronic services as part of a B2C relationship by taxable persons (businesses) subject to VAT, whether or not established in the European Union (EU), to persons not subject to VAT (private consumers) domiciled in the EU are taxable in the customer's country of residence.

To save the taxable entities from having to fulfil administrative formalities in each of the Member States in which they provide services, they can register with the "mini One Stop Shop", which enables them to generate a single electronic VAT return and to pay VAT in the Member State of identification which they have designated. The mini One Stop Shop handles the distribution of information to the various Member States of consumption concerned and redistributes the tax due to them.

Use of the mini One Stop Shop is optional. Businesses that do not register must declare and pay VAT in each of the Member States in which their customers are resident.

For taxable persons that choose Luxembourg as their Member State of identification, the VATMOSS platform is the single electronic point of contact for:

• registration for VAT purposes;
• declaration of VAT;
• and payment of VAT.

Businesses can, via the VATMOSS platform, register for the scheme from 1 October 2014 and start declaring the provision of services as of 1 January 2015 in a safe and secure manner with a LuxTrust professional certificate.

Who is concerned

All taxable persons providing the relevant services, whether or not established in the EU, can register with the mini One Stop Shop in a Member State, either for the Union scheme (EU scheme) or for the non-Union scheme (non-EU scheme). Henceforth, this Member State of identification is where the taxable person must declare and pay the VAT which is due in each Member State of consumption in which the taxable person is not established.

Services concerned

The mini One Stop Shop concerns VAT on the provision (B2C) of telecommunications, radio broadcasting, television and electronic services by taxable persons (businesses):

• whether or not established in the European Union (EU);
• in Member States where they are not established;
• to non-taxable persons (private consumers) established in the EU.

Union scheme

All taxable persons fall within the Union scheme (also referred to as EU scheme) if they have established either their business headquarters or a permanent establishment in the EU and they provide the services concerned to non-taxable persons established in a Member State other than the one in which the taxable person has its headquarters/permanent establishment.

Non-Union scheme

All taxable persons fall within the non-Union scheme (also referred to as non-EU scheme) if they provide the services concerned to private consumers established in the EU (including in the Member State of identification) and if they:

• have not established the headquarters of their business activity in the EU;
• do not have a permanent establishment in the EU;
• are not registered or required to register for VAT purposes in the EU.

Prerequisites

Member State of identification

The Member State of identification is the Member State in which the taxable person is registered with the mini One Stop Shop and in which it declares and pays the VAT due to the Member States of consumption.

The taxable person may only be registered with a single Member State of identification.

Union scheme

For taxable persons falling under the Union scheme, the Member State of identification is:

• either the Member State in which the business has established the headquarters of its business activity in the EU;
• or the Member State in which the business has a permanent establishment, if the headquarters of its business activity is located outside the EU.
  If it has several permanent establishments in different Member States, the taxable person can choose one of these.

The business is registered in the Member State of identification under the VAT identification number allocated to it by that State for its internal transactions.

Non-Union scheme

For taxable persons falling under the non-Union scheme, the Member State of identification is the Member State of their choice.

The Member State of identification will allocate an individual VAT identification number to the business, using the EUxxxyyyyyz format in which:

• xxx is a numerical code used to uniquely identify the Member State of identification;
• yyyyy are 5 digits which uniquely identify the company;
• z is a check digit.

Member State of consumption

The Member State of consumption is the Member State in which the business provides telecommunications, radio broadcasting and television or electronic services to private consumers. It is the Member State where the customer resides.

Union scheme

Under the Union scheme, the business can neither have established the headquarters of its business activity nor have a permanent establishment in said Member State. It may, however, be registered as a non-established taxable person for other reasons (e.g. distance selling).

Non-Union scheme

Under the non-Union scheme, the business may neither have any sort of establishment nor be registered or required to register for VAT in said Member State for other reasons.

Member State of establishment

Union scheme

The Member State of establishment is the Member State, other than the Member State of identification, in which the taxable person registered for the purposes of the Union scheme has a permanent establishment.

Non-Union scheme

The notion of a Member State of establishment does not exist under the non-Union scheme.

How to proceed

Luxembourg as a Member State of identification: registering on the VATMOSS platform

Taxable persons who choose Luxembourg as their Member State of identification must complete an application for registration via the Luxembourg mini One Stop Shop portal.

In order to do so they must:

• order a LuxTrust professional certificate in the form of a professional card (Smartcard PRO) or a professional USB key (Signing Stick PRO) containing their identification details;
• and apply for access rights to eTVA by submitting a Request for the access to the eTVA system using a professional LuxTrust Certificate to the Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (Administration de l’enregistrement, des domaines et de la TVA - AED).

Information to be provided

To register with the mini-portal, businesses falling under the Union and non-Union schemes must provide the Member State of identification, in this case Luxembourg, with the following information by electronic means (for taxable persons already identified, some data will be automatically retrieved from the national system):

• the individual VAT identification number allocated by the Member State of identification;
• the name of the company or its commercial name;
• the company's full address;
• the country in which the headquarters of the business activity is located;
• the taxable person's email address and any of its websites;
• the contact person's name;
• the contact person's telephone number;
• the IBAN or OBAN and the BIC for the company's bank account;
• the date from which application of the scheme is to commence;
• the date of application for registration with the scheme;
• the nature of the services provided (telecommunications, radio broadcasting and television or electronic services) and a description of these services.

Businesses that register for the Union scheme must also provide:

• the VAT identification numbers, or failing this, the tax registration number, for the various permanent establishments located outside the Member State of identification, whether or not these establishments provide telecommunications, radio broadcasting and television or electronic services;
• the addresses and company names of these permanent establishments;
• the VAT identification numbers allocated to the business as a non-established taxable person by the Member States in which the business is registered but not established (e.g. if it is registered there for distance selling activities).

Businesses which register for the non-Union scheme must also provide:

• their national tax number;
• an electronic declaration certifying that they are not already registered for VAT in the EU.

The effective date of registration

Registration for the scheme takes effect on the first day of the quarter following the application for registration by the taxable person. The date of the application for registration is the date on which the taxable person provides all the registration details via the web portal.

In some cases, the business can start to provide services falling within the scheme before this date. The mini-portal is applicable in that case with effect from the first provision of a service, if the business notifies its Member State of identification on the 10th of the month following the first provision of service at the latest. If this time frame is not observed, the taxable person must register for and declare VAT in its customers' Member State(s).

The taxable person (under the Union scheme) whose headquarters is located outside the EU and which has several permanent establishments within the EU, including one in Luxembourg, and which chooses to register in the Grand Duchy is bound by this decision for the current calendar year and two subsequent calendar years. It must then declare all the services concerned using the mini-portal.

Taxable persons falling under the non-Union scheme are not subject to this requirement and can freely choose to change Member State of identification or cease their use of the scheme.

Changes to registration details

The taxable person must inform Luxembourg of any change in registration details by email by the 10th of the month following the change at the latest.

Some registration details can be changed:

• email address;
• contact details;
• list of permanent establishments;
• list of VAT identification numbers in other Member States, etc.

Some registration details cannot be changed:

• the individual VAT identification number;
• details transferred from the national system;
• the date of provision of the first service which determines the date from which the scheme applies.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact