Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

630 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 2. THE TRANSFER OF THE TOURIST PACKAGE CONTRACT Chapter III: Amendments to the tourist package contract before the start of the package, contains Article 9, entitled “Transfer of the package travel contract to another traveller”. The rule states, in paragraph 2, that “ The transferor of the package travel contract and the transferee shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment of the balance due and for any additional fees, charges and other costs arising from the transfer ”. This will be the registration fee for the purposes of the transfer. Paragraph 3 of the standard states that “ the organiser shall provide the transferor with proof of the additional fees, charger or other costs arising from the transfer of the package travel contract ”. Today the rule makes explicit reference to transfers between travellers; therefore, those indirect taxes on business that affect transactions between taxpayers who do not qualify asVAT subjects (entrepreneurs, companies, professionals) are essentially relevant 14 . It is, therefore, a question of registration and stamp duties. In contractual practice, it will be very difficult for a supply of a contract/ tourist package between travellers, and therefore between final consumers not subject to VAT, to be easily identifiable and taxable by the tax authorities of the various States. More precisely, although it will be possible to identify in the individual supplies of services the takeover of the new supplying traveller in place of the original supplying traveller, it will certainly not be easy to identify the extent and method of payment of the consideration for such supplies between travellers acting as private citizens and not as taxable persons. Moreover, in most cases, such transfers take place through informal negotiations and at a price that tends to be equal to or less than the value of the package. However, the normal taxes applicable to such supplies in most EU Member States (stamp duty and the like) do not always require a formalized contract and also applywhere the supplier does not realize a surplus, assuming the consideration agreed for the supply as the taxable amount. This is undoubtedly an important issue in principle, but in practice it will be difficult for it to be applied. 14 With regard to the concepts and types of taxes, duties and charges, reference can be made to what has already been pointed out in relation to Article 5.