On 22 May 2024, the Swedish Parliament is expected to vote on a proposal to remove the requirement to retain original hard copy accounting materials. The bill, published on 29 February 2024, proposes that hard copy accounting materials, which have been duly saved digitally, no longer have to be kept in hard copy. The amendments are proposed to enter into effect on 1 July 2024.
In March 2021, the EU approved new reporting rules in a directive known as DAC7. The directive will require the operators of online platforms for the sale of goods and certain services, to collect, verify and share data on their sellers and their transactions concluded on the online platform. EU member states have until 31 December 2022 to implement DAC7 into national law. Certain platform operators will become a reporting platform and will need to start collecting and verifying data points in compliance with the DAC7 reporting requirements. The collected data points must be reported to the tax authorities of the relevant EU member state annually.
On 11 March 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its ruling in case C-812/19. The case concerned the VAT treatment of the supply of services from a head office, which was part of a VAT group in Denmark, to its branch in Sweden.
Overruling earlier precedent, the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court decided, in a ruling from 4 February 2021, that the supply of connectivity, capacity and space in a data center should not be exempt from VAT liability as letting of immovable property. The ruling aligns Swedish law with the reasoning of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in the recent A Oy case and is positive news for the Swedish co-location and data center industry.
Since 2013, even if the interest income from a loan to an affiliated company in Sweden was taxed at a rate of at least 10% in the lender’s country of residence, the interest deduction was often disallowed on the ground that the principal reason for the debt having arisen was for the group to receive a substantial tax benefit. Last Wednesday, 20 January 2021, the ECJ ruled that it is contrary to EU law to deny interest deduction on cross-border loans on this ground if the interest would have been considered deductible if the lender had been a Swedish entity. This landmark ruling provides companies the possibility to reassess non-deductible interest costs in Sweden.
Baker McKenzie’s VAT/Indirect Tax Practice presented “Audits and Disputes”, on 9 September 2020. This was the fourth presentation in the International VAT Conference Webinar Series, a global webinar series designed for VAT specialists from all industry sectors that aims to discuss the latest developing trends and hot topics in the VAT/goods and services tax (GST) and customs arena.