The following requirements must be met:

1. The reporting entity must be a payment service provider as defined in article 243a (1) of Directive 2006/112/EC;
2. The reporting entity must provide payment services as defined in article 243a (2) of Directive 2006/112/EC;

3. The reporting entity must be involved in processing a payment as defined in Article 243a (3) of Directive 2006/112/EC, between a payer and a payee, where the payer is located in a Member State and the payee is located in another Member State, in a third territory or in a third country.

Article 243b (3) does not provide a limit on the number of payment service providers who are subject to reporting obligations. Therefore, all payment service providers of the payee are subject to the reporting obligations.

The BIC identifies the PSP. If a BIC is not available, an alternative unique identifier that links the report to the payment service provider must be used.

If the loan account is also qualified as a payment account within the meaning of PSD2, these payments are in the scope of the reporting obligation if all the conditions laid out in Article 243b of the VAT Directive are met.

Yes, both questions can be answered affirmatively. As long as the payee receives more than 25 cross-border payments in the reporting period, the identity of the payer and payee is irrelevant. Data on domestic payments should not be collected in accordance with the provisions.

The "Guidelines for Reporting" offer information on identifying the respective country. Further information can be found in § 22g UStG (German VAT law) and in the EU FAQs, question 3.1.2.

According to § 22g (4) UStG (German VAT law) the obligations to report are referring to the respective quarterly period starting on 1st January 2024 (as stated in Article 43 (8) and Article 17 of the Annual Tax Act 2022). The data concerning the first quarterly period of 2024 must be submitted latest on 30th April 2024. All future reports must be submitted accordingly.

According to Section § 22g (1) UStG (German VAT law) PSP are required to record cross-border payments if they exceed the mandatory threshold of 25 payments to the same payee within a calendar quarter as part of their relevant payment services. As the number of payments can only be determined at the end of each quarter, cross-border payments need to be recorded starting from the first cross-border payment.

According to the "CESOP Guidelines for reporting“ - Chapter 4.3", PSP must report payments as follows:

• The obligation to report lies with the payee's PSP if the PSP is located in a Member State
• The reporting obligation lies with the payer's PSP if the payee uses a PSP in a third country.

In addition, guidance to which Member State the data must be reported (including an example) can be found in section 4.4.

According to the current legal situation, there is no obligation to submit „no transactions“. Submitting no transactions is still recommended, as this enables transparent cooperation with the Federal Tax Office and thus reduces the effort for those required to report to process reminders, inquiries, etc.

Yes, it is possible to download a CESOP-EU validation module from the BZSt website. This contains the necessary files and instructions to check your XML files.

You can find the validation module here: https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/CESOP/XML_Schema/xml_schema_node.html

Notice: The validation tool must be integrated into the respective IT infrastructure before possible use.

Payment data is submitted in XML format. Reports concerning CESOP can only be submitted via our mass data interface "DIP" (Digitaler Posteingang - BZSt online.portal).

It is generally possible for a third party to monitor and submit the data. The PSP must be identified via the BIC or a comparable identification number.

You can use our contact form here to write an email directly to the unit responsible for CESOP.

https://www.bzst.de/SiteGlobals/Kontaktformulare/EN/CESOP/kontakt_cesop_node.html

You can find the legal basis for CESOP at:

https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/CESOP/Regulations/regulations_node.html

You can find the communication manual and the dataset description for CESOP at:

https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/CESOP/XML_Schema/xml_schema_node.html

The communication manual, the schema version and the Open API specification for the mass data interface "DIP" (Digitaler Posteingang - BZSt online.portal) can be found at:

https://www.bzst.de/EN/Service/Portalinformation/portalinformation_node.html

https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/CESOP/cesop_node.html

Further information on CESOP, in particular answers to frequently asked questions, can be found on the European Commission's website at:

https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/taxation-1/central-electronic-system-payment-information-cesop_en