The supply of goods and services, within the meaning of the Code, effected for consideration by a taxable person acting as such, are subject to tax when they take place in Belgium.
A transaction carried out by the taxable author or artist will thus only be subject to Belgian VAT if the transaction is located in Belgium.
The Vat Code provides for different localisation rules depending on the type of operation:
- B2B: location in the country where the licensee is established; and
- B2C: rental in the country where the service provider is established.
Location of an NFT delivery
The delivery takes place, in principle, at the place where the good is put at the disposal of the purchaser.
Does this mean that VAT is due on all deliveries of goods from digital NFT platforms when the buyer is a Belgian resident?
What’s surprising really, isn’t this already the case for e-commerce companies like Amazon?
Indeed, since July 1, 2021, the VAT is applied according to the legislation in each country where the buyer is located.
Last year, a new European regulation concerning distance selling of goods and services with regard to VAT (law of April 2, 2021) came into force. It aims at simplifying and modernizing the European VAT regulations.
Article 1 of the VAT Code defines the intra-Community distance selling of goods. This “concerns the supply of goods dispatched or transported by the supplier or on his behalf, from a Member State other than that of arrival of the dispatch or transport to the purchaser who falls into one of the following categories: (…), non-taxable natural persons”.
Thus, as of July 1, 2021, all distance sales within the EU will be located in the country of arrival of the goods.
In addition, special measures have been introduced in the VAT Code to involve taxable persons who operate “electronic interfaces” in the collection of VAT on distance sales made through their intermediaries.
The notion of “electronic interface” refers to all websites, portals, gateways, marketplaces intended to facilitate the remote sales of the underlying sellers who use their services.
Article 13bis of the VAT Code introduces a fiction in that, for the application of VAT and under certain conditions, these taxable persons are deemed to have purchased the goods sold through their electronic interface from the suppliers and then to have resold them themselves to the final customers. They are therefore liable for the VAT due.
For VAT purposes, this remote sale by the underlying supplier, via the electronic interface, to the end customer will have to be broken down into two operations:
– delivery of goods from the underlying supplier to the electronic interface
– delivery of goods from the electronic interface to the final customer.
As we will see in practice, these rules seem to be the ones that will be applicable to the sale of an NFT.
Localization of a service ((con)session of copyright)
For transactions between taxable persons (B2B), the supply of services will, in principle, be localized where the service recipient is established.
For services to non-taxable persons (B2C), the supply of services will, in principle, be located where the service provider is established.
It should be noted that an import takes place in Belgium when the Member State where it is deemed to take place, in accordance with §§ 3, 4 and 5, is Belgium.
The importation of a good is carried out in the Member State on whose territory the good is located when it enters the Community.
Read: CTVA, art. 23 – 25. Imports .
