9.5.2 The VAT treatment of voucher transactions involving voucher as defined in the EU VAT Directive

Under the rules that came into force on 1 January 2019, a distinction should be made between two types of instruments that are both covered by the definition of ‘voucher’. In Article 30a(2) of the EU VAT Directive, a so-called ‘single-purpose voucher’ (or SPV) is defined as “a voucher where the place of supply of the goods or services to which the voucher relates, and the VAT due on those goods or services, are known at the time of issue of the voucher”. Under Article 30a(3) of the EU VAT Directive, all other vouchers are considered ‘multi-purpose vouchers’ (or MPVs). The EU VAT treatment of transactions involving SPV differs from transactions involving MPVs, as I will now explain.