The changes included refer both to the sale of goods within EU territory (now called intra-community distance sales), and to imported goods, although this article only refers to the former. Currently in distance sales, VAT from the country of origin of the goods is applied, unless they exceed certain threshholds established by the countries. In this case, the VAT to be charged should correspond to the Member State where the receiver of the goods resides.
This regime has the disadvantage that if an operator sells its articles in various EU countries, it would need to register for VAT purposes in each of them, which implies (and I speak from experience) considerable time and money. Nevertheless, from July 2021 there is a single threshold of EUR 10,000 throughout Union for this type of sale (before, each country established its own). If said limit is exceeded, the VAT of the destination country should be applied. The most significant difference is that it is not necessary to register in each of the States; the vendor may use the system known as the “single window.
Using this system, Spanish or German business owners include invoices with VAT charged in other countries (that is, Italian or French VAT, etc.) on their VAT declarations, and the tax aurthorities of their countries collect the amounts. Then each government takes charge of transferring the money collected to each of the States in which sales of the goods have taken place. This is, evidently, a simplification of business owners’ tax obligations, which is always welcome, and even more so in an international context.