No fines for late payments for non-residents due to pan-EU IT issues on new One Stop-Shop returns
The Finnish tax office, Verohallinto, will not be issuing late return notices or imposing penalties for late payments on One Stop-Shop VAT returns between March and September 2022. This affects non-resident sellers or deemed supplier marketplaces using Finland as their member state of identification (registered there) or filing OSS elsewhere with Finnish customers and VAT.
OSS was introduced in July 2021 as part of the EU e-commerce package for intra-EU distance selling VAT reporting in a single VAT registration. In its first six months, it collected just under €7 billion in VAT revenues across the 27 member states. At 31 December 2021, over 90,000 EU business are registered on OSS, and just over 4,600 non-EU business are on the non-union OSS scheme. Over 8,600 e-commerce sellers and marketplaces are using the related Import One Stop-Shop. There are also almost 1,000 Intermediaries
The penalty suspense is due to ongoing reporting data issues in a number of other countries arising from ongoing IT development issues which makes reconciliation of VAT receipts difficult.
Over 35,000 non-resident companies use OSS in Finland.“As we cannot know whether a company has failed to pay VAT or whether the payments are missing due to transfer delays, we will not send payment reminders to companies that are registered in the OSS system or collect penalties from them,” says Lauri Taskinen, Tax Specialist at the Tax Administration.
The EU is looking at extending the OSS to other B2C and B2B sales as part of the VAT in the Digital Age reforms.
Check our country VAT guides for information on Finland and other jurisdictions.
EU VAT in the Digital Age reforms
| EU VAT in the Digital Age | |
| 3 reforms to improve efficiency of VAT for all and reduce fraud | |
| 1. Single VAT registration in the EU; extension of OSS to B2C own stock movements | 2025 (?): Following the 1 July 2021 introduction of the One Stop-Shop (OSS), extended to cover movement of own stocks prior to cross-border B2C to reduce the foreign, non-resident VAT registrations & returns. Plus to movements of own stock with ending of 'call-off' stock burden |
| More details on Single VAT Registration in the EU | |
| Marketplaces deemed supplier for EU sellers | |
| EU IOSS mandated for marketplaces | |
| EU tackles misuse of IOSS numbers | |
| Quick fixes to existing e-commerce VAT rules | |
| Call-off stock VAT simplification ends | |
| Harmonisation of B2B Reverse Charge rules | |
| 2. Digital Reporting Requirements; e-invoicing | 2030 (?): Mandatory digital reporting of intra-community transactions; obligation to be able to issue and receive intra-community e-invoices; member states free to impose own e-invoicing or real-time reporting but most conform to EU e-invoice standard EN 16931 |
| Read more about EU Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) | |
| E-invoices mandated intra-community supplies 2028 | |
| EC Sales lists replaced by Digital Reporting Requirements | |
| 2014 EU legal permissions for e-invoicing lifted | |
| 3. VAT treatment of the platform economy | 2026 (?): Travel & accommodation sharing platforms to become deemed supplier / liable to users' VAT. New definitions of the roles of providers, users and platforms to avoid double and no-taxation |
| Read more - Travel & accommodation platforms deemed suppliers for EU VAT | |
