Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 January 2019
246. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Finance the estimated total value of electronic sales from Ireland to Italy for VAT-unregistered customers and VAT-registered customers in each of the years 2015 to 2018. [1498/19]
View answer247. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Finance the likely tax loss to Ireland in a full year of the proposed Italian digital tax if credit was claimed and-or granted here for the tax and the companies affected changed their business structures to reallocate profits to the locations in which the sales were generated, that is, Italy. [1499/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 246 and 247 together.
I have set out below, for the years 2015 to 2017 and period to the end of Q3 2018 (beyond which figures are not yet available), an estimate provided by the Revenue Commissioners of the total value of taxable e-services supplied directly to VAT unregistered customers in Italy by businesses established in Ireland. Supplies from Ireland are excluded where a business has a fixed establishment in Italy or has chosen not to register though the simplified VAT Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) scheme. In addition, Irish businesses that supply services though digital portals, platforms, gateways or marketplaces where the host is not VAT MOSS-registered in Ireland may be excluded. Equally, businesses located outside of Ireland that supply e-services through such technologies with a host established in Ireland may be included.
|
Year |
Value of Taxable Supplies (B2C) to Italy €m |
|
2015 |
€111m |
|
2016 |
€205m |
|
2017 |
€415m |
|
2018 (Q3) |
€368m |
Information on the total VAT collected on these supplies is provided on the Revenue website https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/registrations-assessments-transactions/vat-moss.aspx.
The supply of e-services to VAT registered customers is not within the scope of the VAT MOSS scheme, as VAT registered customers account for their EU acquisitions through domestic VAT and as such the identification of such supplies is not readily available. Irish businesses providing intra-Community supplies are required to submit periodic returns on these supplies, although specific detail on these goods or services is not required. Therefore, it is not possible to quantify the value of e-services from these records. However, the value of all taxable VAT zero-rated services is available. The table below provides an estimate of the value of all taxable services (including e-services) supplied to Italy for the period January 2015 to the end of August 2018.
|
Year |
Value of Taxable Zero-rate Services (B2B) to Italy €b |
|
2015 |
€2.9bn |
|
2016 |
€4.0bn |
|
2017 |
€4.2bn |
|
2018 (August) |
€2.6bn |
Additional information concerning International trade in services is provided by the Central Statistics Office at the following link:
http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=BPA04&PLanguage=0.
As regards Question [1499], I am informed by Revenue that the available data is not sufficiently detailed to enable a calculation of the likely tax loss as a result of a digital tax in any specific EU Member State.
