2020 Quick Fixes: VAT provisions on the cross-border exchange of goods

With the publication in the Official Gazette of Legislative Decree no. 192 of 5 November 2021, the European provisions contained in the “2020 Quick Fixes” – VAT provisions on the cross-border exchange of goods – which were already effective as of 1 January 2020, have been transposed into Italian regulatory system.

The new legislative decree has clarified that intra-Community supplies of goods are exempted from VAT when:

• the recipient has notified its VAT identification number to the supplier
• The supplier has submitted the INTRASTAT declaration

The new law introduces the “call-off stock” regime for those situations in which a taxable person dispatches or transports goods to stock in another Member State for an intended acquirer whose identity and VAT identification number are known at the time of the transport or dispatch and who has the right to take goods out of this stock at its own discretion, with consequent transfer of the property on the goods.

Now Italian regulation complies with Eu legislation, according to which:

• no intra-Community supply and no intra-Community acquisition take place at the time of dispatch or transport of the goods to the stock located in another Member State.
• the intra-Community supply is VAT exempt in the Member State of departure and the intra-Community acquisition is taxed in the Member State where the stock is situated only when the acquirer takes ownership of the goods.

The call-off stock arrangements simplification, as summarized above, applies if:

• both the supplier and the intended acquirer are taxable persons
• the supplier has not established its business nor does it have a fixed establishment in the Member State to which the goods are dispatched or transported
• the supplier records the dispatch/transport of the goods in a register
• the goods are transported from one Member State to another with the scope of being there supplied at a later stage to an intended acquirer
• the supplier mentions the VAT identification number of the intended acquirer in its recapitulative statement (only that, not the value of the goods) submitted for the period in which the transport of the goods takes place
• the intended acquirer is identified for VAT purposes in the Member State to which the goods are transferred
• the intended acquirer’s identity and VAT identification number are known by the supplier at the time when dispatch or transport begins
• the goods are transported from one Member State to another, thus excluding imports, exports and supplies within a single Member State from the simplification.

The new regulation also contemplates the chain transactions of subsequent supplies of the same goods (which means that there are two or more consecutive supplies), where the goods supplied are subject to a single intra-Community transport between two Member States.

In the case of chain supplies where the transport ends in the national territory, only the goods purchased from the intermediate operator are to be considered as intra-Community acquisitions. However, if the intermediate operator communicates to the EU supplier his VAT number in the State where the transport starts, the intra-Community acquisition is the one made by the intermediate operator’s customer.

The new rules do not apply to distance sales made via electronic devices.