The EU Commission provided an update on the current status of ViDA negotiations, at the recent VAT expert group meeting which was held in the last weeks.

The Commission confirmed that the e-invoicing & digital reporting (DRR) pillar requires ‘further technical discussions’, with consensus yet to be achieved in this area; meaning that the implementation timeline of ViDA will almost certainly be delayed.

It seems that Member States cannot agree on the specifics of the EU-wide digital reporting requirements which will be implemented for cross-border transactions; with some Member States also raising concerns around changes required to their existing domestic e-invoicing / digital reporting programmes, which under the original plans would require harmonisation to the specifications of the EU-wide digital reporting system.

It was also confirmed that the adoption of the ViDA package will only take place once agreement is reached on all areas of the proposal , indicating that the other pillars of the ViDA package (Single VAT registration & Platform economy changes) will not be separately implemented, and thus will also face delays.

The Commission remains tight lipped on the expected length of any delay, though it is expected that the ‘DRR’ pillar may face a delay of 2 to 4 years (2030 – 2032) due to the intensive IT infrastructure investments that EU Member States will have to make, with the other two pillars perhaps being delayed between 12 – 18 months (2026). The Commission also indicated that the technical discussions on the ViDA package will continue under the Belgian presidency starting from Jan 2024, meaning approval of the package will not take place this year.

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