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CESOP reporting for payment service providers – end-to-end compliance

Reporting of cross-border payment data

We assist payment service providers in fully and audit-proof implementation of CESOP reporting requirements—from data collection to transmission. CESOP (Central Electronic System of Payment Information) is a central EU reporting system that helps tax authorities detect VAT fraud in cross-border payments. This particularly affects payment service providers such as banks, e-money institutions, payment providers, and FinTech service providers that process payments for merchants and service providers based in the EU. For certain cross-border payments, they must report detailed information on the payer, payee, amount, currency, date, and payment instrument. As of 2024, these reports must generally be submitted quarterly to the relevant national authorities, which feed the data into CESOP.

Typical CESOP challenges in practice

Identification of reportable payments (thresholds, EU requirements)
Diverse data sources and formats (core banking systems, payment engines, PSPs)
Complex business rules and frequent changes
Ensuring data quality and completeness
Efficient creation and submission of CESOP reports
Coordination between Tax, Compliance, IT, and business units

WTS solution

Efficient CESOP transmission

Your bridge to the BZSt with validation, signature and logging: We offer a technical CESOP transmission solution that formally validates and signs the XML file provided by the customer and then transmits it electronically to the BZSt (Federal Central Tax Office) DIP test system or DIP production system. Finally, you can retrieve the transmission logs as proof for the BZSt.

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Our CESOP transmission solution to the BZSt DIP interface

With the technical WTS CESOP transmission solution, which is structured as SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), you can upload your reportable payment transactions in accordance with the XML format specified by the BZSt. The input data is then technically validated by the WTS CESOP transmission solution against the BZSt's XSD definition. WTS reports the validation result back to the payment service provider. Any necessary corrections to the XML file are made by the payment service provider.

Functional scope of the WTS CESOP solution

Secure Login: User management with authentication and authorization, including two-factor authentication (2FA)
Transparent History: Overview of all reports submitted via the portal to date
Easy Upload: Upload function for CESOP XML files provided by the customer
Formal validation: Technical verification of the CESOP XML file against the official XSD definition of the BZSt
Test transmission: Sending of test reports and zero reports to the BZSt-DIP test server
Production transmission: Sending of production CESOP reports and zero reports to the BZSt-DIP production server
Evaluation of responses: Automatic import, evaluation, and logging of responses from the BZSt/DIP server
Download of logs: Provision of a summary of the message, including responses from the BZSt, for download
Targeted corrections: Option to delete transmitted production messages prior to resubmission

Added value for your institution

Legally compliant and audit-ready CESOP compliance

Reduced burden on tax and compliance resources

Scalable solution for additional regulatory reporting requirements

Reduction in manual tasks and sources of error

Contact now and request a CESOP assessment

Franz Widmann - Director

Franz Widmann is Director for Digital Process Automation and your contact for DAC 7 topics.

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FAQs relating to CESOP

What is § 22g UStG about?

From January 1, 2024, payment service providers will be obliged to keep records of cross-border payments in relation to the payment services they provide in each calendar quarter and transmit them to the Federal Central Tax Office.

This information will be transmitted to the Central Electronic System of Payment Information (CESOP), where it will be stored centrally.

What is the timeline like?

The regulation applies from January 1, 2024. The data for the first calendar quarter of 2024 must be reported by July 31, 2024 at the latest. There is a quarterly reporting obligation.

What solutions do we offer you?

WTS provides a CESOP submission solution that helps to

formally validate an XML file supplied by the customer
sign the XML, transmit it electronically to the BZSt DIP test system or DIP production system and retrieve the transmission logs.

How should a CESOP notification be made?

The CESOP declaration must be transmitted electronically to the BZSt's mass data interface DIP (Digitaler Posteingang) exclusively in digital form as an XML file in accordance with the officially prescribed data set.

Manual transmission or transmission in a format other than the specified format is not possible.

What is the aim of the CESOP message?

Tax authorities should be able to identify fraudulent companies more quickly and determine when supplies of goods and services are deemed to have been made in accordance with Title V of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 Nov 2006 on the common system of value added tax (OJ L 347, 11 Dec 2006, p. 1).

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