The Ministry of Finance presented a new - taking into account the demands of entrepreneurs - a bill introducing a split payment mechanism in VAT.
The split payment mechanism is one from a proposal from the Ministry of Finance to seal the VAT system. If the split payment mechanism is used, the payment for the purchased goods or services will be divided as follows:
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- the net sales value will be paid by the buyer to the supplier's bank account,
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- the amount of VAT will be paid to a special account - the supplier's VAT account.
As a result of the public consultations conducted in the current project, among other things, the possibility of extending the time limit for the refund of tax to the account of the entrepreneur was abandoned – the reimbursement is to be carried out as if automatically.
The deadline for 90 days to 60 the days for the release of funds from the VAT account to the billing account and the record of customs and tax checks or checks carried out has been removed. This means that a taxable person who is in dispute in a tax dispute not completed by a decision will be able to release funds from the VAT account.
The situations in which the entity requests the release of funds from the VAT account have also been clarified, where the amount of the release appropriations indicated in the application differs from the actual release after the provision has been made.
In addition, the new draft provides that the rules on the interest rate on the VAT account will remain under the contract of the parties.
In addition, regulations were introduced to allow for payment in the split payment mechanism in the form of factoring and no provision was made for taking over the money collected in the VAT account should the taxpayer be removed from the register as a VAT taxable person.
The scope of VAT accounts was also extended to payment institutions.
What is important is that the split payment is to be voluntary and therefore only those entrepreneurs who declare to do so will join it. The mechanism can also be used when the taxpayer has doubts about his supplier. The split payment mechanism will be the standard account of an entrepreneur to which the tax will not have access.
However, the possibility of having funds from this account will be limited to the possibility of transferring funds to other traders' VAT accounts and to the fulfilment of obligations including tax.
The fundamental benefit of the split payment mechanism will be the absence of the possibility of imposing an additional tax obligation on the taxpayer, the lack of interest on late payment and the lack of joint and several liability with the supplier of goods when the taxpayer makes the payment using the split payment mechanism.
The possibility of making payments in the split payment system is planned from 1 April 2018