On January 25, 2024 the European Commission issued a press release in which it announced that it adopted a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose EU directives into national law. The Commission is sending a letter of formal notice to those Member States who have failed to notify national measures transposing directives, whose transposition deadline expired recently.
In this package, there are 26 Member States which have not yet notified full transposition measures for 11 EU directives in the fields of justice, internal market and SMEs, taxation and customs, health, climate, home affairs, and financial services. Member States concerned now have two months to reply to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition, or the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
Letters of formal notice were send with respect to the following 3 tax directives:
Fight against VAT fraud: harnessing the key role played by payment service providers (PSPs)
Directive (EU) 2020/284 came into force on January 1, 2024 introducing new transparency rules that harness information collected by payment service providers (PSPs) to help EU Member States crack down on Value-Added Tax (VAT) fraud. Ireland, Cyprus and Romania have not communicated complete transposition of the Directive into national law by the deadline of December 31, 2023.
Administrative cooperation in the field of taxation: strengthening joint tax audits between Member States on digital platform transactions
Directive (EU) 2021/514 of March 22, 2021 amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC7) introduced, as of January 1, 2023 new tax transparency rules for transactions on digital platforms so Member States can better identify situations where tax should be paid. In addition, DAC7 introduced, as of January 1, 2024, strengthened rules for joint audits between Member States in the area of taxation in general. All Member States had to notify complete transposition of those new rules on joint audits into their national legislation and inform the Commission before the end of 2023. However, Germany and Poland have not communicated transposition of those provisions.
Corporate taxation: introduction of a minimum rate of effective taxation of 15% for multinational companies active in EU Member States
Following the global agreement reached by the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework, Directive (EU) 2022/2523 (the ‘Pillar 2 Directive'), in force since January 1, 2024 introduced a minimum rate of effective taxation of 15% for multinational companies active in EU Member States. Estonia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Portugal – have not communicated national measures transposing the Directive by the deadline of December 31, 2023.
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