European Council confirms that VAT is due on online events in the country of the consumer

27 April 2022

The European Council has amended the EU wide VAT directive (No. 2022/542) relating to the place of supply for live virtual events.

The amendment confirms that from 1 January 2025, the supply of a live virtual event is taxable in the country where the consumer purchasing the online attendance resides, which means that virtual event providers will need to charge VAT to the consumers locally in their own country. This will force these types of suppliers into either VAT registering in each country or using the non-union OSS system to account for the VAT on these types of supplies.

This change will have a significant impact on non-EU businesses that are supplying virtual events, as many non-EU countries own VAT legislation (like the UK’s) state that these types of supplies are taxable where the event itself is hosted. As a result, this could lead to double taxation as businesses will be forced to charge VAT both in the country where the event is hosted from and in the EU country where their customer resides.