Law No XI-518 of 3 December 2009 Amending Articles 2, 3, 9, 121, 13, 14, 15, 25, 28, 31, 40, 46, 53, 58, 68, 71, 711, 74, 75, 78, 79, 84, 881, 882, 91, 95, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, Amending and Extending Annex 2, Changing the Title of Chapter XIII and Annulling Articles 131, 911 and 127 of the Law on Value Added Tax of the Republic of Lithuania and Supplementing It with Article 1191 (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 151–6772).

      

      In accordance this Law, effective of 1 January 2010:

      

      Article 13 of the VAT Law was amended and with respect to service provision to taxable persons a new rule is set, according to which services provided to taxable persons are considered as provided in the country where the service provider is established. In the case of service provision to a non-taxable person, the same rules apply, i.e. services are considered as provided on the territory of the country where the service provider is established.

      

      Considering the nature of some services, in certain cases specific rules will continue to be applied (e.g. to real property related services, culture, art, sports, education, science, entertainment related services, shortterm car rent, etc.).

      

      It was newly established that an obligation to calculate output VAT on acquired services will arise for all services that are subject to the new basic service provision location determination rule and that are provided to taxable persons by foreign taxable persons not established on the territory of the country.

      

      Foreign persons who have a division on the territory of Lithuania but perform supply of goods or services not via the division located in Lithuania shall be considered as foreign taxable persons without permanent establishment on the territory of the country.

      

      The provision regarding the submission of reports on the supply of goods and/or services to other Member States. In the submitted reports on transactions with persons of other Member States, taxable persons will also have to submit data on the services supplied in other Member States to VAT payers of other Member States (except for the services that are non-taxable in the other member State or taxable with 0 VAT rate). From 2010 these reports will have to be submitted monthly, not quarterly.

      

      The Law established new rules regulating mandatory registration as VAT payers. Starting from 1 January 2010 taxable persons, who will acquire services subject to the “reverse” taxation mechanism on the territory of the country from foreign taxable persons, and persons who will provide services in another Member State, and these services have to be VAT chargeable in that other state, shall register as VAT payers (it should be noted that such persons may not be deregistered from VAT payers if they acquired or provided the above services in the previous and/or current calendar year). An obligation to register as VAT payers was also established for persons who engage in export from Lithuania applying the VAT rate of 0 percent.

      

      The procedure for the refund of VAT paid in other EU Member States was changed. It was established that taxable persons may submit electronic requests for refund of the paid VAT via the tax administrator of the country of their registration.

      

      A possibility was newly introduced for taxable persons to make a choice in advance to calculate VAT on the advance payment received irrespective of whether the services will be provided after 12 months or earlier.

      

      In the case of supply of goods in customs warehouses, where a customs warehousing procedure is documented for the goods supplied, a provision was established to apply 0 percent VAT rate in order to avoid double taxation with VAT.

      

      As the Law amended Article 79 of the VAT Law, documentation of the supply of services or goods with a VAT invoice is not obligatory when goods or services that are non-taxable with VAT or taxable with 0 percent VAT rate are supplied.

      

      As Article 91-1 of the VAT Law was annulled, from 1 January 2010 the errors committed in the VAT returns can be corrected by applying the general means established by the Law on Tax Administration, i.e. in the current and 5 prior tax periods (irrespective of whether the errors were made with the input or output VAT).

      

      The Law came into force on 1 January 2010.

      

       Resolution No 1711 of 16 December 2009 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Amending the Resolution No 899 of 13 June 2002 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Refund of Value Added Tax to Foreign Persons (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 154-6966).

      

      The Order amended minimum refundable amounts to foreign taxable persons: LTL 1380 if the

      –– request is submitted for the period shorter than one calendar year but not shorter than 3 calendar months of the same calendar year;

      –– LTL 170 if the request is submitted for the full calendar year or the part remaining until the end of the calendar year shorter than 3 calendar months.

      

      The Resolution came into force on 1 January 2010 and applies to the requests of foreign taxable persons for value added tax refund submitted after 31 December 2009.

      

       Order No 1K-474 of 24 December 2009 of the Minister of Finance Amending the Order No 189 of 21 June 2002 of the Minister of Finance on the Rules for Submission and Consideration of Requests for VAT Refund to Foreign Taxable Persons and for VAT Refunding (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 156-7050).

      

      The Order amended and presented a new wording of the rules for the submission and consideration of requests to refund the VAT paid in the Republic of Lithuania by the taxable persons established in other Member States and for VAT refunds as well as the rules for the submission and consideration of requests to refund the VAT paid in the Republic of Lithuania by the taxable persons established outside the territory of the European Communities and for VAT refunds.

      

      The Order came in to force on 1 January 2010 and applies to the requests for VAT refund submitted from 1 January 2010.

      

      Order No VA-95 of 15 December 2009 of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate Amending the Order No 178 of 26 June 2002 of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania on the Rules for Registration with / Deregistration from the Register of Value Added Tax Payers (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 150-6771).

      

      The Order amended the Rules for Registration with / Deregistration from the Register of Value Added Tax Payers. The Rules established that:

      –– Persons who have an obligation to register as VAT payers shall submit applications immediately when the obligation to register as a VAT payer arises and shall calculate and pay VAT to the budget.

      –– Persons who register as VAT payers voluntarily shall submit applications not later than 7 business days prior to the day from which they wish to be registered.

      –– Foreign persons who have an obligation to register as VAT payers shall submit applications to the RSTI not later than 7 business days prior to the start of the supply of goods and/or services in Lithuania or acquisition of goods from other EU Member States.

      –– Foreign persons, who register as VAT payers voluntarily, shall submit applications not later than 7 business days prior to the day of the month from which they wish to be registered with the Register.

      

      If persons (natural persons of the Republic of Lithuania) are not registered with the Taxpayer Register, along with the application they shall submit an application to register with the Taxpayer Register.

      

      The RSTI shall verify the records in the applications received, assess their validity and adopt a decision in the form FR0618 (to register or not to register a person of the Republic of Lithuania with the Register) within 7 business days, and in the case of reorganisation of persons – within 5 business days. The application consideration term is calculated from the following business day after the RSTI received the application. If the submitted application lacks certain data to adopt a reasoned decision (form FR0618), i.e. if the data recorded in the application is incorrect, missing or has to be verified, within 4 business days from the start of term of the application consideration the RSTI has the right to request the missing and/or additional data and/or invite the person to come to the RSTI (by sending the notification (form FR0619) by registered post, by telephone, e-mail or in another form). When the person provides the RSTI with all the requested information, the decision (form FR0618) shall be adopted within 3 business days calculated from the date of receipt of all the additionally submitted and/or specified data and/or documents at the RSTI. The decision adoption term is calculated from the following business day after the RSTI receives the requested specified data and/or documents.

      

      The Order came into force on 20 December 2009.

      

       Order No VA-102 of 22 December 2009 of the Head of the State tax Inspectorate Amending the Order No VA-29 of 1 March 2004 of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of the Value Added Tax Return and Other Related Forms and the Rules for Their Completion (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 154-7001).

      

      The Order approved the value added tax return form FR0600 and other related forms as well as the rules for their completion. The new form shall be submitted for the tax periods starting from 1 January 2010, also for the adjusted tax returns of prior tax periods if submitted after 26 January 2010.

      

      The Order came into force on 29 December 2009.

      

      Order No VA-103 of 23 December 2009 of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate Amending the Order No VA-34 of 12 March 2004 of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of the Form for the Report on the Supply of Goods to Other European Union Member States and the Rules for Its Completion, Submission and Adjustment (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 156-7064).

      

      The Order amended and presented a new wording for the form FR0564 version 03 for the report on the supply of goods to other European Union Member States and the rules for its completion, submission and adjustment. The form must be submitted for the tax period until 31 December 2009 and for the tax period starting on and after 1 January 2010.

      

      The Order came into force on 31 December 2009.