Frequently asked questions about the cross-border payment information declaration (06/02/2024)

Payment service providers whose home or host Member State is the Kingdom of Spain are required to submit the information declaration on cross-border payments when they provide more than 25 cross-border payment services to the same beneficiary in a calendar quarter.

However, the payment service provider acting on behalf of the payer shall not report those payments where at least one of the payment service providers acting on behalf of the payee is located in a Member State. These payments, although they do not have to be declared in Form 379, must be computed for the purposes of calculating the number of payment services provided to the same beneficiary within each quarter.

Law 37/1992, of December 28, on Value Added Tax, does not apply in the Canary Islands (as a territory excluded from the harmonization of taxes on turnover) or in Ceuta and Melilla (as territories not included in the Customs Union).

Consequently, payment service providers that exclusively provide payment services in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are not required to submit the information declaration on cross-border payments.

The VAT Directive continues to apply in Northern Ireland, but only in respect of goods (Annex 3 of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland).

Payment service providers located in Northern Ireland should therefore be considered to be established in a third country.

Consequently, for payments to beneficiaries located in Northern Ireland, the payment service provider of the payer located in Spain will have the obligation to provide information provided that the conditions established in article 166 quater of Law 37/1992, of December 28, on Value Added Tax, are met.

Monaco, Akrotiri and Dhekelia should be considered as third countries for the purposes of the cross-border payments disclosure report.

Therefore, for payments to beneficiaries located in Akrotiri, Dhekelia and Monaco, the payment service provider of the payer located in Spain will have the obligation to provide information provided that the conditions established in article 166 quater of Law 37/1992, of December 28, on Value Added Tax, are met.

The VAT Directive does not apply to the following third territories that are part of the customs territory of the Community:

• Mount Athos.

• The Canary Islands.

• The French territories referred to in Article 349 and Article 355, paragraph 1, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, Saint Martin);

• The Åland Islands.

• The Channel Islands;

• Champion of Italy;

• The Italian waters of Lake Lugano.

Furthermore, the Directive does not apply to the following territories which are not part of the customs territory of the Community:

• The island of Heligoland.

• The territory of Büsingen.

• Ceuta.

• Melilla.

• Livigno.

The French overseas territories, the Netherlands Antilles, the Faroe Islands and Greenland are also treated as third countries and the VAT rules do not apply to them either.

Therefore:

• Payments made by payers located in the third territories mentioned above (listed in Article 6 of the VAT Directive) are outside the scope of the reporting obligation.

• Payments to beneficiaries located in any of the third territories mentioned above, coming from payers located in Spanish VAT territory, fall within the scope of the information obligation. These payments must be reported by the payer's payment service provider.

Payment service providers from EEA countries can obtain a payment license in their home country and use passport rules to provide payment services in the EU even without a physical presence in any of the Member States. In that case, payment service providers in EEA countries could be subject to reporting obligations when providing payment services in EU Member States in the following cases:

• The EEA payment service provider acting as the payer's payment service provider in the Spanish VAT territory: will declare in Form 379 the payments from that payer to any third country (including EEA countries);

• The EEA payment service provider acting as the beneficiary's payment service provider in the Spanish VAT territory: will declare in form 379 the payments received from other Member States.