Since 1 January 2010, the refund of VAT Tax Credit to taxable persons established in another Member State called “8th Directive” is repealed and replaced by a new procedure after the Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 which introduced the dematerialization procedure.
The recasting of the old procedure of VAT refund called “8th Directive” derives from the two following texts adopted February 12, 2008 by the European Council:
•Directive 2008/9/EC on the modalities of VAT refunds to companies established in another Member State;
•Regulation No 143/2008 on the exchange of information between Member States (MS) is necessary to underpin the new arrangements.
They were complemented by the Regulation No. 1174/2009 of 30 November 2009.
The main provisions have been transposed into French law under the Finance Act 2010 (Section 102) and introduce the principle of such filing to the Member State of establishment and the dematerialization of the procedure reimbursement.
* THE MAIN PRINCIPLES
This new procedure is to expedite the processing times and simplify procedures for operators involved in dematerializing the procedure and allowing them to speak directly via an electronic portal to the competent authorities of their Member State of establishment to get the refund of VAT collected in other Member States. The claim is then forwarded by the administration to the Member State concerned to refund.
The Directorate General of Public Finance (Treasury Department), like other European governments, has done work computer to provide a device in the context of the requirements defined at Community level.
•The proposed mechanism for French companies
To receive a refund of VAT in another Member State taxable person established in France must now submit their applications via the Web portal that became operational since January 8, 2010 in addition to online procedures already proposed by the Treasury Department.
This service is available on-line approach from the Subscriber Area of the Professional site.
For information on how to implement the procedure and characteristics of the device, you can read the headings “General Documentation” and “Information about how cloud” accessible via the links below.
New: from the beginning of August 2010, the input device in line will be supplemented by an alternative feature to allow direct connection of the record of purchases / imports in the form of XML file produced by the accounting software enterprise or another tool.
The technical documentation for this device is already available under “Information on the electronic procedure> The procedure for attaching a statement of invoices as XML.
•The procedure for handling requests sent to France by foreign companies
To qualify for a VAT refund French, foreign companies established in France must not since January 1, 2010, submit their request via the web portal provided by the administration of their Member State of establishment.
* THE EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The new procedure for refund of VAT borne by taxable persons in a country where there is no evidence is provided by Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008.
Since there are variations in the implementation of the Directive, the Commission published for each Member State a handbook that describes how the various member states. These documents are available on the website of the European Commission www.europa.eu, under European Commission> Taxation and Customs Union> Taxation> VAT> Economic Operators> VAT refunds (see link below)
Note: These documents are intended as guides and businesses are invited to apply first to the member states.
An administrative instruction will soon be added to the laws and regulations from the transposition of the Directive (Article 102 of the Finance Act 2010) and you can find below several information documents relating to the implementation of this new procedure.
* REFUND OF VAT PAID IN ANOTHER MEMBER STATE – PROCEDURE DEMATERIALIZED
Since 1 January 2010, to receive a refund of VAT paid in a Member State in which they are not established, French taxpayers have to apply online.
The portal offered by the General Directorate of public finances in accordance with the device developed by the European Commission completes the offer of online procedures already available on the tax website. This new approach to online service is available from the Subscriber Area of Professional Tax Portal section.
* ACCESS TO THE ONLINE PROCEDURE REFUND REQUEST REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING PREREQUISITES:
•The creation of the subscriber area
The creation of the subscriber area is a preliminary step and separated from adhering to online services. It is recalled that the subscription needs to have a digital certificate referenced by the Ministry of Finance or a certificate “tax pro” free issued by the administration.
Companies involved in the procedure of VAT refund from another Member State from 1 January 2010 must create their subscriber area if they do not currently have.
Member companies to Ask Tax Account “, some member companies for payment services” Pay-SI “or” Pay TS “already have a subscriber area.
•Membership Service
Following the creation of the subscriber area, the company must choose which services it wishes to join.
After you select the online services for which it wishes to join the company address the membership form to the service manager of the principal (or EIS IFU DGE) by post for approval.
The accession process should be done by the legal representative of the company (manager, CEO …) or a person authorized to act on its behalf which must include a mandate to form.
To access the procedure for VAT refunds from other Member States, companies must adhere to the e-service “approach” that combines the two procedures: “Perform a process” and “follow a process”
Companies that already have a subscriber area must complete their membership by selecting the new service from the menu “Manage your membership” of the “Your membership” of their space and sending the form to the appropriate department.
Note: In anticipation of the extension of service “approach” to other procedures, it is strongly recommended that companies make themselves the accession process on behalf of the legal representative of the company or instructed its employees. The company is thus guaranteed to hold the service, to have a direct and permanent access to the service “approach” and manage their delegations.
* THE ONLINE APPROACH
The service line approach has two features:
•Make an approach , which allows companies to:
– To take their claims dematerialized destined for other Member States;
– To file an adjustment of the deductible proportion (partial fees).
•Follow an approach that offers companies the ability to track the progress of their applications (depending on the system adopted by the Member State of refund).
The service proposed by the Treasury Department based on an input device of an online electronic form, whose elements have been approved in Europe and correspond to the data provided by Directive 2008/9/EC.
The form input is facilitated by blocking controls (data binding, data format, …) and controls information (minimum amount of demand, period …).
Moreover, the system is automatically configured to take into account a number of “preferences” expressed by each Member State, provided that other conditions must also be met by the applicant.
All these conditions are summarized in the document “The list of preferences and sub-codes adopted by Member States” available at the bottom of each page with a summary sheet listing the state’s choices.
To help you in the form input, the service “Perform action” includes a section of online help for each step and a fact sheet about the procedure.
New: from the beginning of August 2010, the input device in line will be supplemented by an alternative feature to allow direct connection of the record of purchases / imports in the form of XML file produced by the accounting software enterprise or another tool.
The technical documentation for this device is already available under “The procedure for attaching a statement of invoices in XML” accessible via the link below.
* SPECIAL CASES
•The possibilities for delegating access to the procedure
– Delegating access to online approach
The features available within the subscriber area allow the company to delegate access rights to one or more online services to a person having itself established its first subscriber area and have a subscription number.
This delegation is granted access via an online process (Manage your delegations or Manage your alternate directors) by the holder of the membership service (legal representative, employee or other person authorized) without validation from the tax.
The delegation may be granted to one or more persons for each service that the company has acceded. Empowering the delegate may be paused or deleted by the service owner.
– Delegate membership and access to online services
The major features of the subscriber area allow the legal representative of the company to assign membership in an online service to a third person (employee, accountant, attorney) who will own the service on behalf of the company.
An exceptional membership service “approach” can be performed by a third person to the company but this is not recommended because in this case the company does not nup service access “approach” and in particular the procedure VAT refund.
When the person performing the procedure for joining is not the legal representative of the company, the application form issued by the system after the online registration process must be mailed to the service manager of the company with a mandate on behalf of the user agent (see document “Model terms of reference for online services” available under “More information about subscriptions).
Empowering the user who has joined the online service can be paused or deleted by the tax department on written request of the user or the legal representative of the company.
For more information on how delegation can be found below the file “How to access the procedure for redemption available at the bottom of the page.
•Access to the procedure for foreign agents
To obtain a French delegation access to the online service, the agent must first have a digital certificate to create a subscriber area. He has the choice between two types of certificates:
◦Certificates of the market: foreign agents can acquire digital certificates from certification authorities by providing evidence equivalent to the requested documents to French companies (national tax ID number, status of creation ….).
◦Pro Tax certificate issued by the administration: a particular procedure is implemented to allow foreign agents to have identifiers for the withdrawal of an online certificate Tax Pro.
Agents must send their request via email with the form available below along with an attachment a copy of an official document that identifies each applicant.