New German Law to Combat VAT Evasion in Ecommerce. Jörg Brettschneider
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2018.19
2018年9月27日，这一立法在联邦议会进行了议会辩论。20
There was a hearing on interest groups on October 15th 2018.21
2018年10月15日，对相关利益团体举行了一场听证会。22
The law passed the German parliament Bundestag on November 8th 2018.23
2018年11月8日，德国联邦议会通过了这部法律。24
The German Federal Council (Bundesrat) approved on November 23rd25
11 月 23 日，德国联邦参议院进行了批准。26
Which are the coming regulations of interest for ecommerce sellers from China?
对来自中国的电商卖家来说，哪些即将到来的法规会是其所感 兴趣的？
Ecommerce sellers will have to provide their tax registration (Amazon demands the VAT-No.: DE…)27 and a certificate issued by the competent tax authority. Otherwise platform operators are liable for VAT evasion of the respective ecommerce sellers. Therefore, they will not allow sellers to sell on their platforms without certificate anymore.
电商卖家将必须向平台运营商提供其税务注册证明（Amazon 要求提供 VAT 号：DE 开头的）28，以及由所辖税务机关出具 的证明。否则平台运营商将会对相关电商卖家的逃税行为承担 责任。因此，平台运营商将不再允许无法提供证明的卖家在其 平台进行销售。
German government wants to enforce VAT law by establishing a liability rule. The platform operator should act as “police” concerning tax evasion of ecommerce sellers, although the platform operators are not the ecommerce sellers, but offer a kind of neutral service29. A German legal scholar states that this regulatory approach is unconstitutional under the Grundgesetz (the German constitution).30 The proposed obligations of the platform operators were criticized by two speakers in the parliamentary debate.31
德国政府希望通过 VAT 法律的实施建立起一项责任规则。针 对电商卖家逃税的情况，平台运营商应当扮演“警察”的角色， 尽管平台运营商并非电商卖家，而是提供一种中立的服务32。 一位德国法学教授指出，根据德国的《基本法》（德国宪法） 的规定，这种监管方法是违反宪法的。33 在议会辩论中，两名 发言者对平台运营商的这种被提议的责任进行了批评。34
It is criticized by the Bundesrat that the certificate in a paper form will not be practice-oriented for overseas sellers.35 The Bundesrat mentions possible delays of tax authorities in issuing the certificates.36 The platform operator eBay criticizes this point too.37 The Bundesrat demands to implement an electronic query concerning the certificates as soon as possible to enable platform operators to check the certificates.38 But for Germany it is not possible to develop an electronic system to apply for certificates and to check them until the transition periods ends. Ecommerce sellers and platform operators are affected by this shortcoming. The Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland e.V. proposed to wait with the regulation until the necessary IT-infrastructure is implemented.39 The procedure how to get the certificate is still unclear yet and is not subject to the law.
德国联邦参议院对纸质的证书进行了批评，认为其对海外卖家 而言并不是以实用为导向的。40 联邦参议院提到了税务机关在 下发证书时可能产生的延迟。41 平台运营商 eBay 也对这一点 进行了批评。42 联邦参议院要求尽快实现电子查询证书状况， 从而使平台运营商能对证书进行检查。43 但对德国而言，在过 渡期结束之前开发出一个申请和检查证书的电子系统是不可能 的。电商卖家和平台运营商都受到了这一缺陷的影响。德国电 商和邮购业联邦协会提议推迟法规的执行，直至必要的信息技 术基础设施得以应用。44 关于如何获取证书的程序依然并不明 确，也并没有法律对此进行规定。
At present, the ecommerce sellers have to face tax authorities and the platform operators in the context of VAT. In case of a suspected tax evasion, the tax authority informs the respective platform operator concerning that and pressures the platform operator to block the account, to freeze funds and goods. This process is described below. The tax authorities recommend the platform operators to re-open an account after settling the problem, but it is the platform operator who decides on that. In case of repayments the tax authority cannot give any guarantee that accounts will be re-opened after that. For the ecommerce sellers the process of repayment and re-opening an account is intransparent and can makes repayment even more unattractive. In addition, opening of a blocked account by platform operators takes further time.
目前，在 VAT 的框架下，电商卖家需要面对的是税务机关和 平台运营商。在有逃税的嫌疑的情况下，税务机关通知相应的 平台运营商关于逃税的情况，并对平台运营商施压使其冻结相 关卖家的账户，以冻结卖家的资金和货物。这一过程在下文中 会进行具体描述。在问题得到解决后，税务机关会建议平台运 营商关重新解封账户，但是否解封还需要由平台运营商来决定。 在偿付税款的情况下，税务机关并不能保证会在偿付税款后解 封账户。对电商卖家而言，偿付税款和重新解封账户的过程并 不是透明的，并且这对卖家偿付税款的意愿起到了消极作用。 此外，平台运营商解封冻结的账户需要进一步耗费时间。
The communications with the Finanzamt Neukölln is still very difficult.45 Even other authorities like the Finanzamt für Fahndung und Strafsachen Berlin46 or the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern47 are not able to contact the Finanzamt Neukölln. In one recent case the client’s account was suspended by Amazon on request of the Finanzamt für Fahndung und Strafsachen Berlin. The client did the VAT declarations for the past and the client transferred money for repayment to the Finanzamt Neukölln with reference of