New EU place-of-supply rules for services

On 12 February 2008, the Council adopted the VAT package, which consists of two Directives and a Regulation. One of the Directives contains amendments to the rules concerning the place of supply of services, which are aimed at ensuring that most types of service will be taxed in the Member State of consumption. The Directive also provides for the possibility for taxable persons who supply certain services to non-taxable customers to meet their VAT reporting obligations for the entire European Union in a single Member State (under the one-stop-shop arrangements). In this article, the author discusses the new place-of-supply rules and several topics directly relating thereto.