On April 23, 2016 the Austrian Ministry of Finance issued a press release informing the public that during the informal ECOFIN meeting that took place on April 22-23, 2016, the Austrian Minister of Finance  (Hans Jörg Schelling) has called for a pilot on the fight against VAT fraud to be run in Austria. According to the Austrian Ministry of Finance the pilot regards the general applicable reverse charge mechanism. In the press release it is stated that the Czech Republic would also like to run the pilot.

In the press release it is emphasized that the Action Plan on VAT as presented by the European Commission on April 7, 2016 (which proposes to abandon the reverse charge mechanism) leaves the option open for individual countries to experiment with the reverse charge model. Click here to be forwarded to our article from April 7, 2016 on the European Commission’s Action Plan on VAT.

It’s not surprising that it is the Austrian Minister of Finance that calls for a pilot, since he has done this already before (See for example our article from November 6, 2015). Furthermore the Austrian Minister of Finance has been one of the Ministers that has been pushing for a system to combat VAT fraud.

Click here to be forwarded to the press release as issued by the Austrian Ministry of Finance on April 23, 2016. (The press release is available in the German language)

Copyright – internationaltaxplaza.info

Stay informed: Subscribe to International Tax Plaza’s Newsletter! It’s completely FREE OF CHARGE!

and

Follow International Tax Plaza on Twitter (@IntTaxPlaza)