The European Court of
Justice has delivered its decision in the eight cases brought against Member
States for the incorrect application of TOMS.
Unsurprisingly, the judges
have decided to follow the Opinion of the Advocate General in her opinion
delivered on 6 June:
1. The concept of ‘traveller’ cannot be restricted to the final
consumer. Thus TOMS can now apply to B2B supplies, as well as B2C supplies.
2. The margin must be determined transaction by transaction and
cannot be calculated on a global basis.
This information is taken
from a press release in French.
The complete text of the
decision and the press release are not yet available on the ECoJ website.
The implications of these
decisions are major: the imply an significant increase in tax exposure for
wholesale businesses based within the EU, and the “transaction” calculation will enormously
increase clerical workloads.
