Did you know that a buyer of services cannot apply for a WIS?
A purchaser of services may not apply for a Binding Rate Information (WIS). Only the entity selling goods or providing services, which is obliged to pay VAT, has such a right - according to the Head of the KIS.
As a reminder, WIS is a decision issued by the Director of the KIS which classifies a given good or service, inter alia, for the purposes of applying the appropriate VAT rate. The WIS is binding on the authority and, from 1 July 2023, also on the taxpayer in whose favour it was issued. As of 1 July 2023, the WIS application fee has also been abolished.
– The regulations clarify that the entity entitled to apply for a WIS is, among others, a taxpayer with a TIN. This means that any taxpayer meeting this criterion should be able to apply for WIS. However, practice is somewhat different. Indeed, the Director of the KIS has issued decisions refusing to issue WIS requested by the purchaser of the service. In the opinion of the Director of the KIS, the purchaser is not an entity authorised to apply for WIS, and such a restriction results from the regulations. According to the director of the KIS, the entity authorised to obtain WIS is the entity providing the given activity (goods/services), whereas the purchaser is only authorised to obtain WIS in a situation where it is obliged to tax the acquired activity, i.e. in the situation of import of goods, intra-Community acquisition of goods and import of services – informs Anna Konieczna-Nowak, senior consultant at Thedy & Partners.