VAT MOSS Twitter Storm planned for 16th December at 10am

Twitter Storm on “VAT MOSS” planned for 16^th December 10am

It is more than likely that the headline of this article will mean very little to you, but for small and micro-businesses the EU juggernaut is about to plunge them into a new  VAT nightmare from January 1^st 2015.

The ruling affects any business supplying digital services to customers in the EU. At the moment VAT is charged in the country supplying the service so that UK businesses simply fill in VAT returns in the UK and, of course, only need to register for VAT if their turnover is above £81,000

From January 1^st the supplier will have to document the country of purchase and pay VAT in that country.  Now there are 28 EU states and a huge variation in VAT and furthermore there is no minimum threshold on turnover, so even the smallest kitchen table digital business will have to register for VAT.

HMRC is offering VAT  MOSS (Mini One Stop Shop) but businesses are being told they will have to keep records for ten years, make quarterly returns and of course will have to put prices up or absorb the VAT of the purchasing country!

The Government is claiming that this has been in the pipeline for years and everyone should know about it but SME’s (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) have reacted with horror at the complexity of the whole “VAT MESS” and many say they will simply stop trading.

There is a petition on Change.org and a twitter storm is planned for 16^th December at 10am

https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products?tk=jheLI6sRfADo6CnEZ2g-tqnDEcN-rz2lNAHpExXdvGk&utm_source=petition_update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_update_email

Sally Wainman

15^th December 2014