On 14 June 2019, the European Commission published a Proposal for a Council Implementing Decision authorizing Portugal to introduce a special measure derogating from Article 193 of the EU VAT Directive (2006/112).
According to the Proposal, Portugal will be authorized to apply the reverse-charge mechanism to domestic supplies of cork, wood, pine cones or pine nut kernels in their shell. The reason for Portugal’s request to implement these measures is the significant VAT fraud in the forestry sector, resulting from the large number of small taxable persons not complying with their VAT obligations.
If adopted, Portugal will be authorized to apply this derogation from 1 January 2020 until 31 December 2022.
Source European Commission
