Transparency data

Joint minutes: third meeting of the Trade Specialised Committee on VAT Administrative Co-operation and Recovery of Taxes under the EU UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement

Updated 4 December 2023

1. Greeting and opening remarks

The UK and the EU Co-Chairs welcomed participants to the meeting.

2. Adoption of the agenda

The provisional agenda as published in advance was adopted for the meeting.

3. Taking stock of the use of the administrative cooperation and recovery assistance in 2023

The EU presented information on the Parties’ respective use of temporary measures under the VAT Protocol to the Trade Cooperation Agreement (TCA) for administrative cooperation and recovery assistance in the first 2 quarters of 2023. Administrative cooperation provisions have been used effectively, and usage has increased compared to last year. Some minor issues have been encountered and some discrepancies have been highlighted in the statistics.

The EU noted that a number of Member States indicated the use of offline forms as being cumbersome and they experienced some difficulties when it came to choose the correct legal basis, especially regarding recovery.

To resolve these difficulties the EU accepted the UK’s offer to re-share the tables it had prepared showing the precedence of the legal instruments for debt recovery and administrative co-operation available to the UK and EU Member States.

The parties will continue to work together in view of resolving the discrepancies highlighted in the debt recovery statistics.

4. Implementation of the VAT Protocol on administrative cooperation and recovery – adoption of the decisions

The Parties agreed to adopt the decisions which were signed in English during the Committee. These decisions were the following:

• Decision No 1/2023 of the EU-UK Trade Specialised Committee on Administrative cooperation in VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties on the procedure for concluding a Service Level Agreement

• Decision No 2/2023 of the EU-UK Trade Specialised Committee on Administrative cooperation in VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties on the amount and modalities of the financial contribution to be made by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the general budget of the Union in respect of the cost generated by its participation in the European Information Systems

• Decision No 3/2023 of the EU-UK Trade Specialised Committee on Administrative cooperation in VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties laying down implementing rules for provisions relating to recovery assistance of the Protocol on administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax and on mutual assistance for recovery of claims

• Decision No 4/2023 of the EU-UK Trade Specialised Committee on Administrative cooperation in VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties on standard forms for the communication of information and statistical data, the transmission of information via the Common Communication Network and the practical arrangements for the organisation of contacts between central liaison offices and liaison departments

The EU noted that during the Council procedure, some Member States considered useful to include in the VAT Protocol e-forms the outcome notification section, likewise is currently in place in the Electronic-Forms Central Application (e-FCA) VAT application for administrative cooperation within the EU.

Both Parties, the EU and the UK, considered that the information about the outcome of the notification is very useful, and fully in line with the objective of allowing for the exchange of information between the Member States and the UK to be fully implemented. The UK noted that the inclusion of the electronic forms to the implementing decisions to the Protocol as being procedural. For these reasons, they agreed to take the changes on-board at a later stage. The parties also agreed that pending such alignment in the e-FCA-VAT application, the full use of those features regarding the outcome of the notification, will be made on a voluntary basis by both Parties.

5. Debt recovery threshold

The UK once again expressed the importance of amending the VAT and debt recovery threshold to the amount that is equivalent to that contained in Council Directive 2010/24/EU (the EU Mutual Assistance in Recovery of Debt Directive). This would be in order to remove the requirement for British businesses to appoint a fiscal intermediary when registering for the EU’s Import One Stop Shop.

The EU noted previous correspondence from the UK proposing to reduce the recovery threshold and that this topic had been already largely discussed. The EU maintained its position that it was not open to amending the debt recovery threshold, preferring first assessing the functioning of the VAT Protocol, which in its view would be possible only after its full implementation.

The UK requested to have this as a standing agenda item at future Trade Specialised Committee (TSC) meetings. The EU took note.

6. Any other business

No other topics were identified.

7. Conclusions and next steps

Co-Chairs agreed that the draft minutes shall be drawn up within 45 days from the end of the meeting and secretariats agreed to sign the minutes electronically.

Co-Chairs confirmed that the next TSC meeting would occur no later than December 2024.

The Co-Chairs concluded the meeting and thanked delegates.

Annex: List of attendees

UK Delegation:

• UK Co-chair of the Trade Specialised Committee
• UK Government Officials from HM Treasury; HM Revenue and Customs; Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
• UK Mission to the European Union Officials
• Scottish Government Officials

EU Delegation:

• EU Co-Chair of the Trade Specialised Committee
• European Commission Officials
• Delegation of the European Union to the UK Officials
• Representatives of EU Member States