Tuesday 24 March 2015

Digital VAT Developments.

Towards the end of last year, I blogged several times about the VATMOSS mess, and if you have been wondering whatever became of that issue - there is news.

The Digital Microbusiness Action Group has been busy, and they have gotten the attention of Andrus Ansip and David Cameron, among others. There is discussion now about those rules, and the concerns do reach the EU commission. So there is still hope for that absolutely insane law to be cancelled, or at least transformed into something that small businesses will be able to comply to.

It's still not over, though. At the moment, it's only hitting those who sell digital goods - but if we don't stop the madness, 2016 might see the rules extended to actual physical goods. This will hit you. If you are buying stuff over the internet from outside your own country, it concerns you - because your vendor will have to figure out where you are and how much tax to pay. It will even concern you if your vendor is in the same country... if he or she can't comply with the insane amount of bureaucratic rules imposed by that legislation, the business will have to shut down.

So if you have a business and have not already taken it, please fill out this survey. If you know someone who has a business, pass them the link and ask them to fill it out. Every survey helps.

There has been a preliminary write-up of the survey data, and this is available at the EU VAT Action site. This is brilliant, because if you are a resident of any country outside UK (who are aware of the stuff by now), you can now email your minister of finance and send him or her that report, together with your concerns (contact data is provided in the EU VAT action post). Please do it, if you can, and please spread the word. We need to stop that madness.

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