SME Chamber President meets MDB Officials
22 April 2024
Malta Chamber of SMEs President Mr Paul Abela met MDB Chairman Leo Brincat and CEO...
News from our Representatives for Brussels
13 January 2013
E-invoicing:
SMEs need harmonised, full-fledged system – Economic and Fiscal Policy Director
Gerhard Huemer met this week in Brussels with representatives of the European
Commission's DG Internal Market. The aim was to discuss the plans to make
electronic invoicing the default invoicing mode for public procurement as part
of the so-called "Single Market Act II". A hrmonised solution based on a single
EU-wide standard would be by far the best solution, stressed Mr Huemer, warning
against the risks linked to various and often competing national systems.
SMEs need harmonised, full-fledged system – Economic and Fiscal Policy Director
Gerhard Huemer met this week in Brussels with representatives of the European
Commission's DG Internal Market. The aim was to discuss the plans to make
electronic invoicing the default invoicing mode for public procurement as part
of the so-called "Single Market Act II". A hrmonised solution based on a single
EU-wide standard would be by far the best solution, stressed Mr Huemer, warning
against the risks linked to various and often competing national systems.
The
Commission's plans to ensure interoperability among these various methods will
inevitably generate extra costs for SMEs, stressed Mr Huemer, as it was the
case for instance with the Single Euro Payments Area. Not only a harmonised
standard is needed, but it should also cover the full cycle from e-orders to
e-invoicing and e-accounting to be really attractive for SMEs, he concluded.
Commission's plans to ensure interoperability among these various methods will
inevitably generate extra costs for SMEs, stressed Mr Huemer, as it was the
case for instance with the Single Euro Payments Area. Not only a harmonised
standard is needed, but it should also cover the full cycle from e-orders to
e-invoicing and e-accounting to be really attractive for SMEs, he concluded.
VAT fraud:
EC proposals will not solve the problem
UEAPME issued last week a position
paper on a proposal by the European Commission to create a "Quick Reaction
Mechanism" (QRM) to combat VAT fraud. Although cross-border VAT fraud hits both
Member States' budgets and honest companies, the suggested QRM is not a
suitable tool for solving the obvious problems associated with this issue,
wrote UEAPME. In fact, this mechanism focuses exclusively on reacting to fraud,
which is not sufficient to control it. According to UEAPME, a proactive
approach is needed, including the fast and effective exchange of information
between Member States, more manpower and better technical equipment for the relevant
tax authorities. Moreover, the EC suggestion to authorise Member States to
introduce country-specific measures could make matters worse and lead to "fraud
wandering" across the EU. Against this background, UEAPME rejected the EC
proposal.
