Adoption of the E-Commerce VAT Package: The Road Ahead Is Still a Rocky One

The e-commerce VAT package that was adopted in December 2017 is a key element of the European Commission VAT Action Plan and the Digital Single Market strategy. While it should be transposed into the national legislations of the Member States by 2019 and 2021, in this article the author identifies key implementation issues and unfixed enforcement challenges. She highlights, in particular, that relying on electronic platforms to collect the VAT does not come without difficulties and risks of abuse and that the lack of enforcement jurisdiction of EU tax administrations on non-EU businesses remains an unsolved and most worrying issue. Her conclusion is that the adoption of the e-commerce VAT package is certainly not the last step of the EU VAT modernization journey.