January 1st 2015 brought the introduction of the new EU VAT rules, complete with their devastating unintended consequences for the smallest businesses. It’s time to crank things up a gear or 20 – find out how you can join in.
As a result of the campaigning in November and December 2014, the blow was less hard than it could have been, but we have still heard from hundreds of businesses who have already closed because they cannot handle the corporate levels of administration that the changes have brought, and many others who have dropped selling digital goods, which will damage their businesses. And this is just the beginning.
We have achieved some positive concessions, at the sticky-plaster (Band Aid) level, but there are still huge issues facing many businesses, due to the new legislation.
It’s time for the next steps.
The campaign has already grown massively in the past two months and we now have a consultative voice, on behalf of the smallest businesses and sole traders, on key UK committees, as well as having the ear of the EU Commission.
The 2015 campaign aims are:
- Immediate: businesses to call their national government to immediately suspend the implementation of the legislation due to the devastating unintended consequences for micro businesses, whilst it is reviewed.
- Short-term: to obtain a fair and reasonable exemption threshold, to apply worldwide
- Short-medium-term: to work with the key EU decision-makers to review this legislation from the ground up, reworking it to be practical, fair and reasonable, even for the smallest companies
- Long-term: to work at a global level to ensure that the other countries who are bringing in similar place of supply VAT legislation learn from the experiences we are having in the EU and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Although this tax is from EU legislation, we see it as a global problem. And we are seeing more and more nations wanting to apply similar ‘taxation at the place of supply’ models, which could quickly create such an unworkable administrative burden for micro businesses that they become unable to trade outside of their home country. As business owners, we cannot allow the mistakes in the current EU legislation to be replicated internationally. Yet, unless we all take inspired action, that is what will happen.
Over the coming months, we will progress the campaign aims in many ways, including meetings, lobbying, working with politicians, working with the media, getting input into February’s OECD document, Twitter storms (next one likely to be w/c 12th Jan), and much, much more. Please join us on Facebook and keep an eye on our updates here and on our Twitter feed to make sure you know what’s coming next.
But we can’t achieve the campaign goals without you.
How you can help.
Join us – help us get to know you, your business, your unique challenges and how you could help the campaign. And find out how best to make your voice heard – to make a difference. Our campaign group is the ideal place to get answers to your questions, to find out how to get inspired by the Action Challenges, to connect with other businesses and to help each other keep trading and find workable solutions, while the campaign works towards its goals.
Here’s where you’ll find us: EU VAT Action Campaign Group
This is a new Facebook group. The campaign has grown so big that it needed its own space and we would love you to come and join us there.
Take Action Now – from signing the petition through to completing the survey through to writing to your MP / MEPs / Congressman through to hassling your payment provider and generally spreading the word, there are so many different ways you can make your voice heard. Here’s some more inspiration.
Today’s Action Challenge – tell us how you could help! If you’ve got an idea for an action people could take, someone we should be speaking to or a skill you could share with the campaign, please let us know via the comments. We don’t pretend to have all the answers and working together is the only way we will co-create the climate for change that is so desperately needed.
Thank you so much, as always, for your on-going support.
Together, we can make a difference.
Clare & the EU VAT Action Team
Pingback: January 2015 – where we are and where we’re going | Digital Microbusiness Action Group
Have HMRC done any current, effective research into the ‘validity’ of their original estimate of 34,000 businesses / people being affected? Government need to understand that it was a gross underestimate otherwise they won’t have the necessary ‘ammunition’ to present to the EU Commission.
It would likely be more accurate if they took the UK unemployment figure and halved it. Do not forget that there are far more people that are actually unemployed but not included in government official statistics. That would include for example parents not seeking employment because they are staying home to bring-up their children, self-employed people surviving on almost no work since the recession devastated their industry, people caring for a family member at home.
An idea…have you thought about approaching the Green Party to throw some weight behind it/help with the machinations of Westminster and Europe? When I emailed the MEPs for my area I got one glib dismissive response from a Conservative MEP and one thorough and concerned response from a Green MEP…no response at all from the others! The Green MEP for this area is Molly Scott Cato and it seems from the information in her email and on their website that they are campaigning against this legislation in Europe and hassling some people for answers. They may be able to help in some way?
Molly Scott Cato in particular has been very active. She also has a lot of hands-on practical experience and so has a much better understanding of what the concerns of the campaign are compared to the many MPs/MEPs who have not bothered to lift a finger. So I hope Molly and Keith Taylor will continue with their good work.
That said, in my view it would be wrong to seek weight or alliance from one specific party. If politicians have too much control, the voice of reason and common sense can be lost. Other politicians who disagree with the campaign can by-pass it by turning to a discussion about something else that they can ‘condemn’ the rival politicians with. Then it all turns into a one-upmanship game with no winners and nothing useful achieved.
I don’t know exactly how the EU Action Team got together but they are doing a really outstanding job on behalf of thousands of Micro Businesses across Europe, tackling the really thorny problems and not accepting ‘pish posh’ canned answers by people in power that should know better and care more. As earlier, they may well be in talks that cannot be published right now. Let’s continue to support the team every way we can.
I’ve translated this into French so you can post it. How can I send you the document?
That is fantastic Michel, a lot of work, thank you. You could probably copy-paste onto the Team’s contact page? (See bottom-right corner of this page).
I have contacted four people who joined MOSS.
They report a loss of up to 80% of cusmeters because of the new website form (info about customer’s location) and information where they explained why they collect personal data
I’m afraid that if you’re a cusmeter (!) in the EU then you’ll simply have to get used to giving your name and address on EVERY cross border purchase. There is no customer anonymity under #EUVAT. We can only hope that as everyone gets used to it, fewer people will decide to drop out of the purchase process. FWIW when I ran a micro-business a few years ago, I set up Pay Pal to collect name and postal addresses of all customers, giving them option to withhold the information. No one ever withheld, but my experience may not be typical.
cusmeters = customers
Well, it is definitely an unwelcome intrusion. How many consumers will agree with this EU law? It is exactly this totalitarian approach that will make the voters on the streets of Europe have further doubts about the EU as a whole.
Reblogged this on Shalini's Weblog… about "Stuff".