New reporting obligation for payment service providers

Banks and payment service providers are faced with new requirements in connection with cross-border e-commerce. Supervision aims to achieve transparency regarding certain payments and their recipients, mainly with the aim of preventing tax fraud in e-commerce. The obligation to record and transmit cross-border payments of CSPs is based on a legislative package adopted by the European Council on February 18, 2020. From January 1, 2024, payment service providers (PSPs) must record certain cross-border payments and transmit them to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) on a quarterly basis. The national legal basis for CESOP (Central Electronic System of Payment Information) is anchored in Section 22g - Special obligations for PSPs and was implemented within the Annual Tax Act 2022 in the area of VAT. In this context, CESOP serves as a central data collection point for information on cross-border payments and also offers the possibility of a comparison with other European databases.

Find out more on our overview page for EFDIS.CESOP and the CESOP solutions offered by CPB.