Draft law to implement ViDA

UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

DOCUMENT SUBMITTED FOR PUBLIC HEARING
DECEMBER 1, 2025
DRAFT LAW AMENDING LAW 37/1992, OF DECEMBER 28, ON VALUE ADDED TAX, FOR THE PARTIAL TRANSPOSITION OF COUNCIL DIRECTIVE (EU) 2025/516 OF MARCH 11, 2025, AMENDING DIRECTIVE 2006/112/EC REGARDING VAT RULES IN THE DIGITAL AGE.

STATEMENT OF REASONS

I
The VAT Action Plan presented by the European Commission in 2016 aimed to modernize the EU VAT system by providing new tools to combat fraud, thereby reducing the administrative burdens associated with its management for businesses and professionals, and promoting the development of e-commerce and the digital economy, adapting VAT to an increasingly digital world. Its development was designed in different phases.

On July 1, 2021, the e-commerce package came into effect, establishing comprehensive VAT legislation related to e-commerce (under which consumers purchase goods and services primarily via the internet directly from suppliers in other EU member states and non-EU countries). This regulation ensured equal treatment and taxation for EU and non-EU suppliers. Furthermore, it expanded and generalized the one-stop-shop systems for managing and collecting VAT accrued from these operations, which in turn has reduced the administrative burden of registration for companies conducting operations in member states where they are not established. Finally, to ensure collection, it involved the holders of digital interfaces facilitating e-commerce, who become collaborators in the collection, management, and control of the tax.

Subsequently, Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of March 11, 2025, amended Directive 2006/112/EC regarding VAT rules in the digital age. This directive, known in the EU context by its English acronym “ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age),” continues the adaptation of the tax to the digital economy within the aforementioned VAT action plan.

The recent amendments to VAT regulations contained in Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 focus on three aspects derived from digitalization. First, the fight against intra-EU fraud, alongside the generalization of electronic invoicing, through the establishment of an obligation for immediate supply of digitized information for intra-EU transactions based on the use of a structured and harmonized electronic invoice for these cross-border operations that must be reported electronically to the tax administration by the taxable persons.

Second, reducing administrative and registration burdens for operators to avoid the need for multiple registrations for VAT purposes in the EU, advancing so that taxable persons only need a single registration with the tax administration of their establishment, through the expansion and improvement of existing one-stop-shop systems and the generalization of the reverse charge rule to minimize cases where a taxable person is required to register in another member state.

Finally, given the positive results obtained in the management and collection of VAT through digital interfaces facilitating e-commerce operations, the scope of the so-called assimilated supplier is expanded, which already applies to e-commerce platforms in certain cases, to two sectors where competition distortions have been detected: short-term accommodation rental services and passenger transport.

The transposition of the ViDA Directive must be carried out in different phases, with the most significant being those coming into effect on July 1, 2028, and July 1, 2030. However, some minor amendments will apply from January 1, 2027, which are developed in this law.

Thus, the part of Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of March 11, 2025, whose rules will apply from January 1, 2027, introduces changes in the scope and functioning of the special one-stop-shop regimes.

In this regard, it is important to recall that Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 of December 5, which amended Directive 2006/112/EC and Directive 2009/132/EC regarding certain VAT obligations for the supply of services and distance sales of goods, introduced a threshold allowing entrepreneurs or professionals established in a single EU member state whose total distance sales of goods and electronically supplied services do not exceed €10,000 during the calendar year to continue taxing in their country of establishment. For the calculation of this threshold, it is clarified that only the distance sales of goods made by the entrepreneur or professional from the member state in which they are established will be taken into account, excluding distance sales that may be made from other member states. Moreover, it is clarified that the option to tax at destination can only be exercised in the member state where the taxable person is established.

Regardless of the above, the scope of application of the Union’s external regime is expanded, which will also apply even if the recipient of the services provided is not established in the Community. This way, all services provided by entrepreneurs or professionals not established in the EU to final consumers that are understood to be carried out in that territory can apply the Union’s external regime.

On the other hand, operations under the special cash regime are excluded from the objective scope of the external Union regime and the Union regime.

Furthermore, the Union, external Union, and Import regimes do not allow taxable persons under these regimes to deduct any amount of VAT paid in the member states of consumption in their own corresponding tax returns. However, the current regulations allow them to request the refund of VAT amounts paid in those member states of consumption through the general refund procedures provided for non-established entrepreneurs and professionals in the territory of the tax application. Additionally, in the case of non-established entrepreneurs or professionals in the Community, the application of the refund system provided for in Article 119 bis of Law 37/1992, of December 28, on Value Added Tax, is not conditioned on the requirement of reciprocity with the country of establishment of the entrepreneur or professional. However, the new wording of the directive will allow member states that deem it necessary to ensure the control and collection of VAT to require these entrepreneurs or professionals to appoint a representative established before the tax administration.

This has been the option chosen by the national legislator since no exceptions to the obligation to appoint a representative are included, applying the general refund regime for non-established entities in the Community that includes this obligation.

On the other hand, certain technical adjustments are made concerning the e-commerce regulations incorporated in 2021, of a clarifying nature. In particular, to indicate that the subjective scope of application of taxation on the supply of goods made through a digital interface includes those whose recipients are entrepreneurs or professionals conducting operations not subject to those referred to in Article 14 of Law 37/1992, of December 28 (exclusively operations without a right to deduction).

For the same clarifying purpose, it is established that entrepreneurs or professionals under the Import regime will only be required to communicate their websites or internet addresses with which they operate when they exist.

Finally, two transitional regimes are established.

On one hand, given that the current tax regime applicable to consignment sale agreements will disappear when the new module for transfers of own goods established by the ViDA Directive comes into effect on July 1, 2028, it is necessary to specify that the effects of the aforementioned regime extend until June 30, 2029, concerning goods sent to or received from another member state during the validity of these agreements.

On the other hand, a transitional regime is introduced so that gas deliveries made through a natural gas network located in the Community territory or any network connected to this network, as well as electricity deliveries or deliveries of heat or cold through heating or cooling networks, can temporarily be subject to the Union regime until June 30, 2028, since from that date these energy deliveries will be explicitly included among those that can be subject to this special regime.

II
In accordance with the above, this law contains, in the eleven sections of its sole article, the tax modifications to Law 37/1992, of December 28, on Value Added Tax, to proceed with the partial incorporation into the internal legal order of Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of March 11, 2025, which amends Directive 2006/112/EC regarding VAT rules in the digital age. The law also consists of four final provisions.

Section one amends Article 8 bis to expand the subjective scope of application of taxation on goods supplied through a digital interface to include, in addition to those supplies whose recipients are final consumers, those directed to entrepreneurs or professionals conducting operations not subject to those referred to in Article 14 of Law 37/1992, of December 28 (exclusively operations without a right to deduction).

Section two amends Article 68 three, letter a), with the aim of adjusting the wording of the rules regarding the place of supply of intra-community sales of goods to the new wording of the directive for quantifying the threshold provided in Article 73 of the law, which will only consider sales made from the member state of establishment.

Section three amends Article 73, which regulates the aforementioned limit or threshold according to the new wording provided in the directive for its quantification. It also clarifies that the option for destination taxation can only be exercised in the member state where the taxable person is established.

Section four adds letters g) and h) to section two of Article 163 doudecies to explicitly exclude from the objective scope of the special cash regime operations covered by the external Union regime and the Union regime.

Section five amends Article 163 octiesdecies to expand the scope of the external Union regime to those service supplies made by entrepreneurs or professionals not established in the EU in favor of final consumers who are also not established in the same.

Section six amends Article 163 vicies, sections one and two, to require the appointment of a representative for entrepreneurs and professionals not established in the Community to achieve the refund of VAT paid in the territory of application of the tax through the procedure of Article 119 bis of Law 37/1992, of December 28 (special refund regime for certain entrepreneurs or professionals not established in the territory of application of the tax, nor in the Community, Canary Islands, Ceuta, or Melilla), corresponding to the operations declared under the external Union regime. Furthermore, the current wording of the article is modified to make a technical adjustment.

Section seven amends Article 163 tervicies, sections one and two, in terms equivalent to the aforementioned amendments of Article 163 vicies, but in relation to the Union regime.

Section eight amends Article 163 septvicies one with the aim of clarifying that the requirement to communicate the websites of the entrepreneur or professional under the Import regime will only be necessary when they exist.

Section nine amends Article 163 octovicies, sections one and two, in terms equivalent to the aforementioned amendments of Articles 163 vicies and 163 tervicies, but in relation to the Import regime.

Section ten adds a fourteenth transitional provision regarding the validity of consignment sale agreements, which, although they will disappear on July 1, 2028, extend their effects until June 30, 2029.

Section eleven adds a fifteenth transitional provision so that, temporarily, certain energy deliveries made through networks can be subject to the Union regime until June 30, 2028, since from that date these deliveries will be explicitly included among those that can be included in this special regime.

On the other hand, the first final provision refers to the competence title and states that this law is enacted under the competences of the State established in Article 149.1.14 of the Spanish Constitution, which attributes to the State the competence in general tax matters.

The second final provision, regarding the incorporation of European Union law, states that the law partially incorporates Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of March 11, 2025, into Spanish law.

The third final provision contains the regulatory enabling provision that grants the Government the authority to issue any provisions necessary for the development and application of this law.

Finally, the sole final provision states that this law shall enter into force on January 1, 2027, the date provided in the directive that is being transposed for the entry into force of the modifications incorporated into Law 37/1992, of December 28, by this law.

SUBMITTED TO THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
Madrid, [date] 2025
THE FIRST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT AND MINISTER OF FINANCE
María Jesús Montero Cuadrado