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Eurex Clearing
1. Introduction
The German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has issued a circular on 3 May 2021 on the VAT treatment of services provided by exchanges and other trading platforms for financial products.
According to the BMF, services for which the exchange operates as a Central Counterparty (CCP) and IT services (technical connectivity to exchange software/programs or provision of data center capacity), in general, form VAT-exempt services concerning securities. The same applies for services of the exchange for the settlement of exchange transactions (matching, clearing, settlement) and IT services.
The BMF expressly holds that it is possible to waive the exemption pursuant to sec. 9 German VAT Act (option to tax) and that IT services to recipients who do not participate in transaction are VATable.
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2. Required action
There is no action required for the Clearing Members.
3. Details
Subject to further discussions with the tax authorities, Eurex Clearing AG intends to treat essential services in connection with the utilization of the Clearing EDP of Eurex Clearing AG in general as VAT-exempt as of 1 July 2021. This includes fees for connection components required to provide this service.
In the next weeks, we will publish an additional Eurex Clearing circular with a detailed list of fee components and their VAT treatment, in time before the July billing run.
Unless the context requires otherwise, terms used and not otherwise defined in this circular shall have the meaning ascribed to them in the Clearing Conditions or FCM Clearing Conditions of Eurex Clearing AG, as applicable.
Further information
Recipients: | All Clearing Members, Basic Clearing Members, Disclosed Direct Clients of Eurex Clearing AG and vendors | |
Target groups: | Front Office/Trading, Middle + Backoffice, IT/System Administration, Auditing/Security Coordination | |
Contact: | client.services@eurex.com | |
Web: | www.eurex.com/ec-en/ | |
Authorized by: | Matthias Graulich |