VAT: European Commission publishes its guide to the VAT One Stop Shop
The European Commission has produced guidance on its VAT One Stop Shop (OSS) schemes that are effective from 1 July 2021; this also includes a new publication, its ‘Guide to the VAT One Stop Shop ’ providing details concerning registration, VAT returns and VAT payments for the three OSS schemes (union scheme, non-union scheme and import scheme). The guide will be available in all official EU languages, as well as in Chinese and Japanese towards the end of May.
The landing page has other relevant links about preparations businesses can be undertaking now to be ready for 1 July and UK businesses that sell goods and/or certain services to EU consumers need to review the new rules to see if they are affected. The EC’s guidance covers points such as:
- Online sellers can register in one Member State to declare/pay VAT on all distance sales of goods and cross-border supplies of services to customers within the EU
- Abolition of the existing thresholds for distance sales of goods, replaced by an EU-wide threshold for distance sales of goods/ TBE (telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic) services of EUR 10 000
- Special ‘deemed supplier’ provisions for online marketplaces
- New record keeping requirements introduced for online marketplaces
- Removal of the low value consignment threshold of up to EUR 22
- New Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) for distance sales of low value goods imported from non-EU countries
Simplification measures for distance sales of imported goods in consignments not exceeding EUR 150 will be introduced.