Executive summary

The Group on the Future of Value-Added Tax (VAT) of the European Commission (GFV) has published the minutes of its 51st meeting, which took place on 3 March 2024. The meeting addressed implementing the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package. For full details of this package, see EY Global Tax Alerts, EU Council approves VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, dated 12 March 2025, and EU details on VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, dated 7 November 2024.

The meeting included discussions on the platform economy, one-stop-shop (OSS) guidelines on single VAT registration (SVR) and digital reporting requirements.

Platform economy

The meeting included a discussion of GFV No 154: First draft Explanatory Notes on Platform Economy.

The group addressed the need to clarify the scope of this measure, with particular emphasis on how it applies to farmers operating under the special flat-rate scheme. There was also discussion about the requirement for the underlying supplier to provide their VAT number and that all VAT numbers should be consistent with existing legislation. The group also examined the connection between Article 28a, Article 28 and the Tour Operator Margin Scheme (TOMS).

Additional topics included the handling of transitional periods — for instance, when a booking for a service is made before 1 July 2028, but the service itself is delivered after this date. The treatment of chain transactions was also considered, along with procedures for determining when a platform acts as the deemed supplier and when it should or should not undertake this role.

OSS guidelines on SVR

The meeting also included a discussion of GFV No 155: First draft Explanatory Notes and OSS guidelines on SVR for changes beginning on 1 January 2027.

The group addressed the mutually exclusive nature of the SME exemption scheme and the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS); new rules regarding the taxable event for the Non-Union scheme; and the status of the "group of 4" in the deemed supplier provision. The group also asked for further explanation and criteria regarding the concept of "tax representative."

Digital reporting requirements

Finally, the meeting included a discussion of GFV No 156: Second draft Explanatory Notes on Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR). The minutes describe the main points of discussion as follows:

• The recommended criteria for the accreditation of service providers should be redrafted to make clear that this has an advisory role but not an obligation for Member States.
• The updated version of the EU standard allows for the inclusion of attachments within the structured data. In general, the treatment of attachments should be clarified.
• The definition of the issuance, reception and transmission of an invoice can be improved.
• More consistency is needed in the use of issuance and issuing.
• There were different views on how the correction of invoices should be handled. []
• Reporting of the VAT rate and the amount of VAT due. []
• The treatment of payments on account needs to be clarified.
• The definition of what is a transaction should be improved and more examples are needed.
• Disagreement on the chapter on transitional measures.
• Discrepancies in some of the examples while more examples should be added.
• In case of [business-to-business] B2B transaction the supplier should treat the customer as a [business] even if the VAT number is not known yet.
• Further clarification on the use of hybrid invoices and extensions for intra-Community transactions.
• Use of [Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport] EDIFACT.
• The references to sanctions and penalties and the treatment of reporting of data not required should be revised.
• Formal controls are not a prerequisite for the validity of an invoice.
• The reporting of the nature of the goods for sensitive goods needs to be revisited.
• Whether the bank account field should be filled in in any case.

Next steps

The European Commission requested written comments from the delegates.

An online joint GFV and VAT Expert Group (VEG) meeting is scheduled for 25 June 2026 to discuss new versions of the Explanatory Notes. A last online joint GFV and VEG meeting is planned for 19 November 2026 to finalize the Explanatory Notes (for publication in 2027). External experts for the different parts of the proposal will also be invited to these meetings. In addition, an online joint GFV & VEG meeting is planned on 28 May 2026 (still to be confirmed) to present the studies on the challenges of VAT beyond ViDA and on financial services.