Irish VAT MOSS Shock

 

 

A client recently sent me an email showing a terrifying demand from the Irish tax office for over 1 million Euros under the VAT MOSS scheme which was payable within 10 days.   This was a shock as the client had already paid over their VAT MOSS bill for the quarter through the UK system which totalled less than £50!

 

Due to the excessive amounts involved this initially appeared to be a scam which, from a quick search on the internet, apparently many VAT MOSS registered businesses were receiving at the same time.   However within a day the Irish Revenue confirmed it was actually them that had sent out approximately 2,000 letters incorrectly due to a ‘technical error’. 

 

Most of these demands which businesses shared on social media were for hundreds of thousands of Euros when in reality these small businesses had registered to pay over a few pounds of non-UK sales.  (Leading to the #VATMESS moniker on Twitter!).

 

A worrying aspect to this is how a UK business details were obtained by another EU member state and whether there were to be any further letters from other member states to follow.