Changes to the taxation of telecommunication services, broadcasting services and electronic services as of 1 January 2015

Legislative amendments are related to the implementation of Council Directive 2008/8/EC into the Slovenian legislation and concern services supplied to non-taxable persons. The amendments to the rules determining the place of taxation for the aforementioned services affect the business processes of taxable persons and bring a change to the way of preparing and submitting tax returns.

The rules for determining the place of taxation for telecommunication services, broadcasting services and electronic services, when provided to other taxable persons, remain unchanged.

The amended rule specifies that as of 1 January 2015, telecommunication services, radio and television broadcasting services, and electronic services that a taxable person, irrespective of its place of establishment (whether inside or outside the EU), supplies to a non-taxable person shall be taxed in the Member State where the recipient of the service is established (registered office), has a permanent address or usually resides. Taxable persons who perform such services to non-taxable persons in other Member States shall charge and pay VAT in these Member States, meaning that they will need to be identified for VAT purposes in all the Member States where their clients are established or have a place of residence.

The taxation of services supplied to non-taxable persons according to the place of consumption will ensure that the services are always taxed at the rate applicable in the Member State of consumption.

In order to simplify the transactions of the suppliers of the aforementioned services based on the new rule, a "mini-one stop shop" system (the so-called "MOSS") will be introduced at the same time, enabling taxable persons to fulfil their VAT liabilities for the aforementioned services within the EU in a single Member State. This special system may only be used in Slovenia by a taxable person with a place of business or fixed establishment in Slovenia or who has been identified in Slovenia for VAT purposes. A taxable person shall notify the tax authority of the start, end or change of its activity, which is carried out based on a special system, to the extent that such system can no longer be used. The notification is sent in electronic form (already available as of 1 October 2014 via the Slovenian e-Tax Portal). For the identification of the taxable person, the tax authority uses the identification number already allocated to that taxable person for its liabilities under general rules.