113
In Austria, an invoice issued electronically is deemed orderly if the recipient
agrees to this and the integrity of the content is warranted in the case of
electronic invoices. An electronic signature in the sense of the Signature Act
can warrant this in line with an Ordinance issued by the Federal Minister of
Finance. The genuineness and integrity must be guaranteed for seven years.
In Switzerland, electronically issued invoices that are relevant for input tax,
taxation, or other tax purposes are accepted if the origin and integrity can
be demonstrated. To guarantee this condition, a digital signature is required
for the transferred data. The requirements for an electronic signature in the
VAT field are the same as those fulfilled by advanced signatures. The
principle that the tax payer is responsible for demonstrating the tax relieving
circumstances.
Can using Cloud computing lead to a tax obligation in another country?
Domestic taxation cannot be generally be shifted to a different country
simply by using Cloud services. To allow this to happen, a permanent
establishment would need to be founded in that country. What all
definitions of the term permanent establishment have in common is that
this is a fixed facility which must be subject to the business owner's power
of disposition. For this reason, the use of Cloud computing did not typically
lead to a shift of the taxation requirements for the Cloud service user.
It needs to be investigated on a case‐by‐case basis whether or not a (new)
obligation to pay taxes in a different country could be founded. This could
possibly be the case if a state in which e.g. a server is located where these
attacks on its output. Could it then be that the customer is liable for
taxation? This cannot be ruled out. In case of uncertainty, it is advisable to
seek fiscal advice locally or to transfer the physical risk to the provider under
the contract.
In the case of cross‐border procurements of services within a company
group, all between affiliated enterprises, the business owner must also be
aware of the topic of internal prices.
VAT‐related consequences
When services are procured in the scope of Cloud computing VAT‐related
questions typically related to the location at which the services are
provided. The question whether or not VAT must be paid, who was
responsible for paying it and what tax rate is applied, will depend on this
question. Another decisive factor is what status the recipient of the service
