The first response came from Labour MEP Clare Moody. I won't cut and paste the full text here, just the points on what's been confirmed about VATMOSS,
She said that Labour have spoken to the UK government, HMRC, the European Commission, the Federation of Small Businesses, and consumer organisations, among others, to try and get to the bottom of the issues and address concerns.
The following points have been clarified about VATMOSS. Some of these I already knew about, but it can't hurt to put them out there again. (This part is a direct cut and paste, in the interests of fairness and transparency):
• You will not need to become familiar with the individual tax regimes of all 28 EU Member States. The whole purpose of HMRC's 'one stop shop' is to make life as easy as possible for small businesses and individual traders. If you continue to trade as you do now, then you can submit your sales figures to the one stop shop and it will calculate your VAT and present you with a single figure, in pounds sterling.
• You will not need a VAT number in order to use the one stop shop. I know that a number of businesses and traders have been concerned that they will need to register for a UK VAT number in order to use the one stop shop. I have spoken to HMRC and can confirm that this is not the case. Instead, you will simply be given a one stop shop registration number in order to use that service.
• You will not have to pay VAT on your UK sales. If you are below the existing UK threshold of £81,000 of sales in a year, then you are currently exempt from registering for and paying VAT in the UK. That exemption will remain for UK sales, even if you sell in other Member States. So while you will have to use the one stop shop and pay VAT on your European sales, your protection from VAT registration and payment in the UK remains.
• You will have until 20 April 2015 to make your first returns. Although the new EU law comes into effect on 1 January 2015, you have the first quarter of the year in order to make your returns to HMRC via the one stop shop. The one stop shop has been open for registrations since October, and you can continue to register into the new year.
• If you trade through an online platform, like the App Store, then you will not need to register. If you do trade through such a platform, it is worth checking whether or not you need to register. A significant number of them will calculate the VAT for you, and you won't need to do anything.
• HMRC will be on hand to answer your questions. HMRC has put a significant amount of information on its website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-supplying-digital-services-and-the-vat-mini-one-stop-shop/vat-supplying-digital-services-and-the-vat-mini-one-stop-shop. You can also contact them via their Twitter account @HMRCcustomers, where they recently held a Twitter surgery to help with people's questions and concerns.
She went on to assure me that Labour will continue to put pressure on the government and HMRC to not downplay the seriousness of the concerns of microbusinesses, and to provide clearer guidelines and help. Some points that have not yet been answered are how small traders are expected to comply with data protection, how they are supposed to determine the origin of the purchaser, and if some traders might need to upgrade software - and how expensive this will be for them to do. She said she'd let me know when she hears back, although this might not be for a while.
She also attached a briefing from the UK Permanent Representation, I haven't got around to reading this yet though and will update again when I do.
Thanks, Clare Moody, for such a swift response!