- Booking.com faced a significant VAT compliance case in Italy involving a tax evasion accusation
- The Dutch online travel and accommodation platform allegedly evaded nearly EUR 153 million in VAT from 2013 to 2019
- The Italian Revenue Agency initiated a tax investigation in 2018, focusing on transactions with non-professional hosts
- Booking.com was accused of not applying VAT on services provided to private individuals without a VAT identification number
- The company assumed these individuals would handle VAT under the reverse charge mechanism, which was not accepted by Italian authorities
- Italian law requires intermediaries like Booking.com to manage VAT obligations when private hosts do not have a VAT number
- The investigation expanded to include interviews with former Booking.com CFOs and extended the tax claim to include the year 2022
- Booking.com was found to have incorrectly applied VAT rates, leading to a substantial amount of uncollected VAT
- The case highlights the importance of digital platforms complying with national VAT regulations in each operating country
Source: vatabout.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
