The EU VAT Treatment of Vouchers (FM nr. 157) 2019/9.7.4.1:9.7.4.1 Return goods

The EU VAT Treatment of Vouchers (FM nr. 157) 2019/9.7.4.1

9.7.4.1 Return goods

Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.

Under the current EU VAT rules, the transfer of an SPV shall be regarded as a supply of the goods or services to which the SPV relates. The actual handing over of the goods or the actual provision of the services in return for a single-purpose voucher accepted as consideration or part consideration by the supplier shall not be regarded as an independent transaction. Also, where the supplier of goods or services is not the taxable person who, acting in his own name, issued the single-purpose voucher, that supplier shall however be deemed to have made the supply of the goods or services related to that voucher to that taxable person.

I will use the following example to demonstrate how this can lead to practical issues:

A business (A) issues an SPV to another business (B) for resale. B sells this SPV to a private individual (P). The private individual redeems the SPV at a third business (C) against a good, for no additional consideration. C is reimbursed by A for accepting the voucher.

From an EU VAT perspective:

–

a supply was made by C to A (under Article 30b(1), paragraph 3, of the EU VAT Directive),

–

by A to B (under Article 30b(1), paragraph 1, of the EU VAT Directive), and

–

by B to P (under Article 30b(1), paragraph 1, of the EU VAT Directive).

Also, from an EU VAT perspective,

–

C does not make a supply to P, even though the right to dispose of the good as owner is transferred by C to P.

At some point after the purchase, P decides that she doesn’t want the good ‘purchased from C’ and returns it to C. From an EU VAT perspective, however, C never supplied the good to her. So how does this work, from a VAT perspective? Because C never made a supply to the private individual, there is no supply to be ‘undone’ or ‘credited’. The supply, under the EU VAT rules, was made by B to P, but she cannot return the good to B – she only bought an SPV from B. In my view, the only way to solve this is to reverse the entire chain of (voucher) transactions in order to achieve the desired end-result, i.e. undoing the supply to P.

This may be true under the relevant EU VAT rules, but from any other perspective (commercial, bookkeeping etc.) this does not make a lot of sense. Treating the supply or transfer of an SPV as a prepayment, and only where the person that is bound to make the actual underlying supply, seems a better option because the above would simply be avoided as no supplies would be deemed to be made between parties transferring the SPV. In my view, again, this is more in line with the economic and commercial reality of such voucher transactions.

Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.