On 12 February 2008, the Council of the European Union issued a press release stating that it had adopted new legislation changing the rules on the place of supply of services for VAT purposes. A more detailed press release on this development was released by the European Commission on the same day. The legislation as adopted has subsequently been published (see European Commission, Legislation recently adopted).

The legislation as adopted is in largely the same form as the version published on 13 December 2007 (see Legal update, Legislation published on new VAT place of supply rules). The major changes in the adopted version are:

1. The legislation confirms that the special rules for telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically-supplied services will not start until 1 January 2015. The current regime is extended to 31 December 2014 and the Commission is to report on the feasibility and suitability of the new rules at that time.

2. The fact that the member state of establishment of the supplier is to retain a reducing proportion of VAT receipts arising under the special rules mentioned above until 2019 (see Legal update, Revised press release on change of VAT place of supply rules) is enshrined in the legislation.

3. The new refund rules have been refined so that they do not apply where an application for the relevant refund is made before 1 January 2010 (when the rules come into effect).