Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

618 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE lease will be exempt when benefitting from the benefit that affects the lease of housing if services of the hotel industry are not provided. The intermediary commission, either to the owner, to the client or to both, is subject to VAT, at the general rate of 21%. But if these material considerations are interesting, more current doctrinals are formal, since the Public Treasury in this type of commerce (mass and scarcely physical but digital or electronic and through platforms that connect the private service providers) has control and inspection problems, in the face of obvious international relocation formulas. Thus, the “collaborative economy” can be a focus of tax avoidance or fraud, difficult to control with regard mainly to taxes such as income tax, income tax and VAT, focusing on it 27 . This verification and inspection difficultymay also lead to the failure to properly applyVATmechanics, because even reservations for tourist apartments with prepayment accrue the relevant VAT for the amounts received as indicated in art. 75.1.2.º VATL, are carried out by the operator of tourist apartments or online platforms. Thus, the advance payment when making the reservation accrues VAT that will have to be paid by the leasing service provider 28 . The Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, “A European Agenda for the Collaborative Economy”, COM (2016) 356 final 29 , is aware that taxation must adapt to the new business models, so that the intervening subjects are aware of their fiscal obligations and duties. They propose an “increased traceability” in order that online platforms collaborate in the collection of taxes, to “help taxpayers fulfil their tax obligations effectively and with minimum effort” 30 . The Communication of the European Commission stops especially in theVAT and in the problems that the collaborative economy entails in such a tax, which are preferably those of identification of the individuals as taxable persons and the detection of the taxed activities proposing measures such as thewindowVATonly for electronic services, the implementation 27 Vid. MONTESINOS OLTRA, S.: Los actores de la economía colaborativa…, op. cit. 28 GDT n. V0946-17, de 17 de abril de 2017 (JUR/2017/137521). 29 Vid. p. 15-17. 30 With the approval of the European Parliament in its Report of May 11, 2017, on a European Agenda for the collaborative economy (2016/0000 (INI)), p. 11/51. He points out that he shares with the Commission the fact that greater traceability of operations can be achieved, although he expresses his concern that the collaborative economy itself may be a space for the avoidance of tax obligations. However, it shares the view that the tax obligations imposed on collaborative economy platforms must be “functionally similar to companies that provide comparable services, both in the traditional economy and in the collaborative economy”.