Title XI: Obligations of taxable persons and certain non-taxable persons

Chapter 4: Accounting

Section 2a: General obligations of payment service providers [1]

Article 243b [2]

1. Member States shall require payment service providers to keep sufficiently detailed records of payees and of payments in relation to the payment services they provide for each calendar quarter to enable the competent authorities of the Member States to carry out controls of the supplies of goods and services which, in accordance with the provisions of Title V, are deemed to take place in a Member State, in order to achieve the objective of combating VAT fraud.

The requirement referred to in the first subparagraph shall apply only to payment services provided as regards cross-border payments. A payment shall be considered a cross-border payment when the payer is located in a Member State and the payee is located in another Member State, in a third territory or in a third country.

2. The requirement to which payment service providers are subject under paragraph 1 shall apply where, in the course of a calendar quarter, a payment service provider provides payment services corresponding to more than 25 cross-border payments to the same payee.

The number of cross-border payments referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be calculated by reference to the payment services provided by the payment service provider per Member State and per identifier as referred to in Article 243c(2). Where the payment service provider has information that the payee has several identifiers the calculation shall be made per payee.

3. The requirement laid down in paragraph 1 shall not apply to payment services provided by the payment service providers of the payer as regards any payment where at least one of the payment service providers of the payee is located in a Member State, as shown by that payment service provider’s BIC or any other business identifier code that unambiguously identifies the payment service provider and its location. The payment service providers of the payer shall nevertheless include those payment services in the calculation referred to in paragraph 2.

4. Where the requirement for payment service providers laid down in paragraph 1 applies, the records shall:

1. be kept by the payment service provider in electronic format for a period of three calendar years from the end of the calendar year of the date of the payment;

2. be made available in accordance with Article 24b of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 to the home Member State of the payment service provider, or to the host Member States when the payment service provider provides payment services in Member States other than the home Member State.