EU LEGISLATION – MINI ONE STOP SHOP (‘MOSS’)

The EU legislation known as Mini One Stop Shop (‘MOSS’) came into force on 1st January 2015 and allows taxable persons supplying telecommunication services, television and radio broadcasting services and electronically supplied services to non-taxable persons in Member States in which they do not have an establishment, to account for the VAT due on those supplies via a web-portal in the Member State in which they are identified. This scheme, which is optional, allows these taxable persons to avoid registering in each Member State of consumption, which would be the case without MOSS.

The MOSS is available to taxable persons which are established in the EU (in which case the Union scheme would apply), as well as taxable persons which are not established within the EU (in which case the non-Union scheme would apply). It should be noted that no threshold applies in the case of electronic or digital services to consumers under the new MOSS VAT rules, whereas normally a threshold of Euro 35,000 applies to distance sales.

A practical guide has been prepared by the EU in order to provide a better understanding of EU legislation relating to the Mini One Stop Shop, as well as of the functional and technical specifications of the special schemes, as adopted by the Standing Committee on Administrative Cooperation (SCAC). This guide is complemented by additional guidelines on the audit of the mini One Stop Shop.