Five Links to Help Small Business Owners Understand Their EU VAT and MOSS Obligations

If you sell digital products online such as ebooks and video courses then there is a good chance that a new EU VAT law brought in at the start of the year can and will affect your business. As I am most definitely not a lawyer; I will not provide any advice on this matter beyond sharing a few links that helped me to understand our obligations in the hope that they may help others.

• UK Business tax – guidance | VAT: supplying digital services to private consumers
  This resource from the UK government shares documents describing the full details and scope of the law and also offers a fairly simple VAT MOSS flow chart (pdf) that can help you to understand if or how the new laws may apply to your business.
• Small victory for UK micro firms as HMRC tweaks EU VAT MOSS rule
  If you're a micro firm in the UK that previously did not need to register for VAT then this article may bring you some comfort.
• WooCommerce and the 2015 EU VAT Changes to Digital Goods
  If you are currently using WooCommerce to sell digital goods with WordPress then this is the primary resource you should need to learn how you can start collecting necessary information to comply with the new laws.
• EU-VAT GitHub Resource
  This GitHub was developed collaboratively and contains links and information on pretty much everything you will need to know including software solutions and discussions with government if you need or want to know all you can about the law and how various business types can and are responding.
• Internet Marketers Survival Guide to The New EU VAT Rules
  This is a more curated and tailored approach specifically for traditional “internet markets” selling information products online. This a paid resource from a qualified UK accountant along with two internet marketers attempting to translate the guidance into the business context.

Hopefully with these resources you should have more than enough information to work out if and/or how the law applies to you. If you find that you are directly impacted then you will want to get the recommended solutions in place as soon as possible as this became law on the 1st January 2015.