To combat cross-border e-commerce VAT evasion by unscrupulous merchants, the Council of the European Union has developed and adopted a new regulation[1] that establishes a new cross-border data exchange system – the Centralized Electronic Payment Information System (CESOP) – through which European Union (EU) Member States’ tax administrations will collect payment data and exchange information. CESOP will be an additional tool for tax administrations to be able control Value Added Tax (VAT) regulation compliance in e-commerce and strengthen the fight against VAT fraud. Information is provided by payment service providers, e.g., credit, electronic money, postal giro settlement, and payment institutions. It is expected that payment service providers will be required to submit data about their customers – payees and their cross-border transactions – if a customer receives more than 25 cross-border payments per quarter.
Amendments to Latvian regulations were made for the adoption of the Council regulation, which will be published after their adoption.
The State Revenue Service (SRS) has prepared information for payment service providers:
- answers to frequently asked questions
- a guide to preparing reports (XSD User Guide)
- Guidelines for the reporting of payment data from payment service providers and transmission to the Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP)
Other CESOP reporting system information is available at: Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP) (europa.eu)
Questions? Please contact: dati@vid.gov.lv
[1] Council Directive (EU) 2020/284 of 18 February 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards introducing certain requirements for payment service providers Directive - 2020/284 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)
Council Regulation (EU) 2020/283 of 18 February 2020 amending Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards measures to strengthen administrative cooperation in order to combat VAT Regulation - 2020/283 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)