"EU VAT MOSS & Small Consignment Relief - Redux" Topic

Latest news:

EU Finance Minister today backed the European Commission's (EC) plans for a wholesale modernisation of the EU VAT regime.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council configuration (ECOFIN) reviewed the programme to simplify VAT compliance and tackle fraud at its quarterly meeting in Brussels. The Plan proposes a range of measures including the extension of MOSS reporting to goods, more co-operation between tax authorities and the removal of zero rating on intra-community supplies.

For wargamers specifically:

* Acknowledgement of proposals to withdraw the small consignment importation relief.
* Recognition of proposals to extend MOSS reporting to online sales of goods across EU borders.

Source: bit.ly/27TtUZH

"So what" you say. Think again. This means that these are one step closer:

* No more VAT free parcels for outside the EU and we'll all be paying the £8.00 GBP collection charge.
* If they don't set a VAT MOSS threshold (which is quite likely) then all businesses will have to register for VAT and levy all the different VAT rates across Europe.
* Small businesses, currently not VAT registered, will have to increase prices by at least 20% and handle some really tricky paperwork.

Even if the UK votes to leave these rules will still apply as they already do to all other non-EU businesses and, given the scale of the issue, enforcement will be more worthwhile. The only bright spot I can see is that if the UK leaves, geo-blocking (selling only to the UK & non-EU countries) would no longer be against EU single market rules.

Selling via the internet will become a complex operation. No more buying from blogs or Facebook pages. I wonder how many firms will give up?

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Martin Stephenson
Vexillia: Wargames Miniatures & Accessories
Shop | Rules | eBay | Twitter

It's OK, Martin, we'll just barcode everything and sell it through Amazon shops… and let Amazon sort out the tax. :D

Thanks Ian! I've taken my medication now.

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Martin Stephenson
Vexillia: Wargames Miniatures & Accessories
Shop | Rules | eBay | Twitter

If this piece of [Snip] is made law, I will likely be closing down as not worth the extra work.

It is the extension of the digital vat rules. If implemented in the same way, it will be a disaster for very small business that trades across borders.

I have been seeing small EU businesses outside of Wargaming either shutting down or stopping Internet sales altogether because the items they sell are small value and the cost of compliance is too great. This sort of lunacy is really to the great benefit of mega-companies to whom the cost of compliance is a pin prick and beats any possible competition out of the market – makes one wonder if the mega-companies are actually encouraging this.

What? Huge multi-nationals influencing EU policy in some way?

Surely not….