Luxembourg Tax Alert 2023-08

In a first vote on Tuesday 19^th July 2023, draft law 8207 implementing the new reporting obligations for Payment services providers (PSPs) was unanimously adopted. A dispense from the second vote was requested.

As a reminder, the EU legal package is constituted by a Directive amending the VAT Directive and an (updated) Regulation¹.

As part of the PSP legal package, a new European reporting entity is created: the “Central Electronic System of Payment” or shortly, CESOP. As the regulation did not require any national implementation measure; only the directive was translated into national terms by the release of draft law 8207 on 5^th May 2023.

For more details on who should be considered as PSP and the categories of transactions covered by the reporting obligations, we refer to our previous alert².

¹ Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP) (europa.eu)

² Luxembourg Tax Alert 2023-01 - KPMG Luxembourg

PSPs falling within the scope of the Directive/law are required to collect and report the data information in relation with the payment transactions¹ as from 1 January 2024 to their national tax authorities (NTAs).

The first obligation requirements on PSPs will therefore cover the payment transactions occurring from January to March 2024.

Further, once the data has been collected by the Member States’ NTAs, the latter will transmit the file to the CESOP by the 10^th day of the second month following the end of the reporting period, i.e. by 10^th May 2024.

In a nutshell, you should be aware of the following reporting periods for calendar year 2024:

¹ Number of transactions above 25

On 23 June 2023, the European Commission published a Draft – Questions and Answers regarding the CESOP reporting FAQ.

The aim of this document is to provide practical information and explanations on the reporting and answer a certain number of questions asked by the Member States. They are therefore supposed to bring additional details the previously published guidelines – but they are not binding. The European Commission also communicated that this document would remain as a draft, as it is in constant evolution and may be completed when it is seen fit. The document is available on the EU Commission’s related webpage¹.

It also refers to an updated version of the XSD user-guide which should be used when filling in the reporting document (released by the national competent tax authorities).

Finally, it is worth noting that the Luxembourg VAT authorities have also set up a CESOP related page on their website² - this webpage gathers all CESOP information available at the time being and will be used for Luxembourg specific communications. You should also keep an eye on this page, as the information on identification and file transmission (through guichet.lu) will be made available there.

It is also foreseen that the VAT authorities will organize information sessions during the 4^th quarter 2023.

Your team of VAT experts stay at your disposal for any request or further information you may need in relation with the implementation of the CESOP in Luxembourg. 

¹ Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP) (europa.eu)

² Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP) - Professionnel - Portail de la fiscalité indirecte - Luxembourg (public.lu)