The European Payment Institutions Federation takes note of the adoption today by the ECOFIN Council of the proposal on VAT-related information reporting requirements imposed on Payment Service Providers.

Throughout the legislative process we have consistently raised concerns about the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposal. We have presented our own pragmatic amendments to these proposals as part of the ongoing negotiations that would streamline the reporting process, reflect current practices in the payment sector and would provide technological solutions to meet the objectives of ministers. Sadly, these have not been incorporated into the final text.

We call upon the Member States and the Commission to closely involve the payments industry in the design of the details of the reporting framework. A constructive dialogue going forward is crucial to make sure that we build a reporting system that delivers the needed information to authorities but at the same time preserves the established way of functioning of the payments industry and does not create undue burden. We request that a joint group composed of Commission, Member State and industry experts is established with a view to achieve this.