Amendments related to the application of 0% VAT rate to transportation services

The Court established, that transportation services related to the exportation / importation of goods should be treated as services which are directly related to the supplier or purchaser of goods.

The Court’s ruling amends current explanation of Article 45, part 1 of the Lithuanian VAT Law (hereinafter – the Law). Based on the current Commentary of the Law, transportation services related to import / export of goods may be exempted from VAT in both stages (i.e. driver – forwarder, forwarder - customer).

On 20 July 2017 the Lithuanian State Tax Inspectorate (hereinafter – the STI) informed, that the STI is going to take the decision to amend the Commentary of the Lithuanian VAT Law based on the Court case – law regarding the application of VAT rate (i.e. 0% or 21%) to the transportation services. However, new taxation provisions should be applied only for the future transactions which will take place after amendments of the Commentary.

The European Union Court of Justice ruling could be find:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=192246&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=774363

21.07.17