VAT MOSS Scheme

VAT Mini One Stop Shop (VAT MOSS) is a way of paying VAT on supplies of certain digital services if either:

  • You are a UK business who makes supplies to consumers in other EU member states
  • Your business is based outside the EU and you make supplies to EU consumers
  • For UK businesses making cross-border supplies where the place of supply is another EU member
    state, there is no registration threshold and VAT is charged at the rate due in the consumer’s
    country.
  • Where a business based outside the EU makes supplies of digital services to consumers in the EU,
    the place of supply will be where the consumer is located.

Read the VAT place of supply rules if your business sells digital services to consumers in the EU. This includes a threshold for UK businesses to determine the place of supply from 1 January 2019.

How the VAT MOSS scheme works

VAT MOSS lets businesses register and pay VAT to HMRC instead of having to register for VAT in up to 27 other EU member states.

There are 2 types of scheme:

  • Union VAT MOSS – for businesses based in the EU, including the UK
  • Non-Union VAT MOSS – for businesses based outside the EU

Union VAT MOSS

To use the Union VAT MOSS scheme in the UK, your business must:

  • Be based in the UK, or be a non-EU business with a fixed establishment in the UK
  • Be registered for UK VAT
  • Supply digital services to consumers where the place of supply is in another EU member state
  • You can only register for the Union scheme in one EU member state.

If your business turnover is below the UK VAT threshold and you have supplies of digital services treated as being made in another EU member state, you must register for UK VAT to use the Union VAT MOSS scheme.

Register now

Non-Union VAT MOSS

To use the Non-Union VAT MOSS scheme in the UK, your business must:

  • Be based outside the EU
  • Have no fixed or business establishments in the EU
  • Supply digital services to consumers in the EU
  • You can only register for the Non-Union scheme in one EU member state.
Register now

How UK VAT MOSS works

Once you register your business for the scheme, you must account for the VAT due on any qualifying sales by sending HMRC a VAT MOSS Return and payment each calendar quarter. A qualifying sale is a cross-border supply of digital services to consumers where VAT is due in an EU country other than where your business is based.

This means you only need to send a single VAT MOSS Return each calendar quarter. You do not have to declare the VAT due separately in each EU member state.

HMRC will send the relevant parts of your return and payment to the tax authority of the country where your consumers are based.

Register now

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