My shop is resting at the moment but I still read all the news and will come back when I work out how to make my product more suitable for Folksy sales. I want to let you know about the response I got from my MP Oliver Letwin who is in charge of the transfer of legislation back into UK law from EU law. I asked him if he could look at VATMOSS - that awful VAT we have to pay to the government of our purchasers! His answer is :
Dear Ms Jenkin
Thanks for your email.
I don’t think the VAT MOSS system was ever intended or designed for small businesses like yours - and I very much hope that whatever trade agreement is eventually reached between the UK and the EU will enable us after Brexit to establish a threshold below which VAT MOSS will not apply.
I can’t guarantee that this will happen. But I shall certainly be arguing for that sort of change if the trade agreement allows it, since the current situation is a nightmare for small online businesses.
Best wishes Oliver Letwin; Rt Hon Sir Oliver Letwin MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA Sent from my iPhone
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I would agree that a change would be good, as it is certainly a barrier to sales from European countries. I don’t think I have ever sold anything to a European country, but I have to the US on another site.
Sam x
I must admit I’ve never sold any of my pdf patterns to Europe only the UK, America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and India.
Is that why I don’t get EU sales! I never knew that tax existed, perhaps I should have.
It only applies to digital sales. I sell digital PDFs on my own website and one of the E sites and paper copies elsewhere.
If you’re talking about VAT on digital sales to EU countries, then it wouldn’t apply to sales on here anyway as there are no digital downloads? But if like me you do get sales from other EU nations for digital downloads from other platforms or your own site, it will still apply post Brexit - its the EU status of the buyer not the seller, so we’re still stuck with it - only now we have no opportunity to influence EU lawmakers, to lobby for a threshold (like the one we have for physical item VAT), and it’s expected that registering and submitting will become harder for us if we don’t use a compliant platforms. So no, I’m not looking forward to the change because things will probably be worse, and I’m disappointed an MP of that level of experience led you to think that this is going away?
That makes grim reading - but on thinking it through I fear you are right.
