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e-Commerce in Europe: MOSS registration
Are you a USA or other non-EU business providing services online to EU clients? These might include software, eBooks, ClickBank products. Or are you in the telecommunications or broadcasting business?
Do you sell in more than one of the 28 EU countries?
Are you non-resident in the EU? (no physical office or address in the EU)
Are you not sure whether you need to charge VAT for your services?
Do you need to register your non-EU business in each EU country?
Ask for our specialist Pura Strong to answer your questions and get your business running in Europe.
In 2012, the VAT place of supply rules changed: the transaction is declared to have taken place in the EU country of the customer rather than in the country of the supplier. That means any business selling or delivering services in the EU must get VAT registration and pay VAT to the country where the client is resident. This is regardless of whether the client is a business or consumer, and regardless of whether the supplier is based in the EU or outside the EU.
MOSS: On January 1 2015, the EU offered MOSS (Mini One Stop Shop): a single VAT registration that serves for all countries of the EU. The MOSS scheme is optional. It is a simplification measure following this change to the place of supply rules. MOSS mirrors the scheme in place until 2015 for electronically supplied services to non-taxable persons by suppliers not established in the European Union.
Example: A person living in Barcelona pays a USA company for access to American TV channels. The US company must charge the customer Spanish VAT. The USA company registers for MOSS, VAT is filed and paid in Spain at the tax office.
If you MOSS registered: once the 35,000€-per-year threshhold in sales is reached for any EU country, you must individually register for VAT in that country .
This simple MOSS registration got a new push in 2015 with the telecom and broadcasting industries over the internet. MOSS was widely used in the UK, as the country of preference for the registrations. Today, with the UK “outside” the EU, the UK is still making more in VAT taxes than any other EU country. This will change, and there is a great opportunity for Spain to start charging with the MOSS. While MOSS registration allows the provider to operate in all the EU, registration is performed through a particular country. This country, in effect, has a new taxpayer.
Links:
OECD report on e-commerce
Discusses e-commerce direct tax and establishment issues, such as the legal status of income coming from e-commerce, the transfer pricing problem between companies that belong to the same group, and the application of the "place-of-effective-management" rule.
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