I'm sharing the information below which I received from EU VAT Action Campaign's
Juliet McKenna (with their consent) in the hope that readers will help
alert the OECD to the EU VAT disaster which is hurting and even killing
small digital businesses. Please help if you can and share this post on.
Alert the OECD to the EU Digital VAT Catastrophe
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) promotes policies to improve economic and social well-being around the world. It provides a forum for governments to work together and share experiences and seek solutions to common problems arising from economic, social and environmental change. They also look at issues like how much people pay in taxes and how this affects business.
At the moment, they are looking at international VAT/GST guidelines on place of taxation for business-to-consumer supplies of services and intangibles. That’s ‘Value Added Tax’ or ‘Goods and Services Tax’ depending on where you live, equivalent to US sales taxes added at the time of purchase. Intangibles means digital products and services.
This is a hugely important opportunity for everyone to voice concerns over the ways in which start-ups and small businesses are being wrecked by the new EU regulations on VAT payable on cross-border digital sales.
It is particularly significant for those in OECD member countries outside the EU such as the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This is the best way to make your voice heard on this matter.
Getting as many responses as possible is vital. These regulations have been devised with the biggest companies in mind. The OECD needs to know the destructive consequences for smaller enterprises and the damage that will do to grassroots economies around the world.
There is currently a Discussion Draft for Public Consultation available here.
http://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/discussion-draft-oecd-international-vat-gst-guidelines.pdf
We need as many people as possible to comment on this document by 20th February 2015.
You need only send two or at most three pages. The more focused your submission is, the better and please use your own words as far as possible. The more individual you make your argument, the more weight it will have.
Having researched previous similar consultations, this is the format we would use:
1. A brief statement of who you are and the reasons for your interest in the implementation of the 2015 EU VAT changes to electronic B2C services.
2. General comments on the problems with EU digital VAT, VATMOSS etc, briefly outlining your key concerns. Keep this section concise, just a couple of lines.
3. Specific issues for you, your business and your particular sector. For each point that you raise, make a direct reference / citation to a specific paragraph in the Discussion Draft (link above). Please cite the paragraph number.
If you find the prospect of searching through that document off-putting, please don’t! We have identified the key reference points for you in the detailed guidelines you can download from HERE as a Word document.
4. Conclusions/Suggestions. If you’re commenting as an individual, you need not include these. If you’re submitting on behalf of a group, you may or may not wish to include the EU VAT Action campaign’s stated aims. It’s entirely up to you.
Please prepare your response and submit it in Word format by e-mail to Piet Battiau, Head of Consumption Taxes Unit, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at piet.battiau@oecd.org.
Once you have sent your submission, please tweet to let us know and to help encourage other people to do the same. Please spread the word about this opportunity for positive action through your other business and social networks."
Tweets should be addressed to @euvataction and you can join in the campaign by following them here https://twitter.com/euvataction
Alert the OECD to the EU Digital VAT Catastrophe
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) promotes policies to improve economic and social well-being around the world. It provides a forum for governments to work together and share experiences and seek solutions to common problems arising from economic, social and environmental change. They also look at issues like how much people pay in taxes and how this affects business.
At the moment, they are looking at international VAT/GST guidelines on place of taxation for business-to-consumer supplies of services and intangibles. That’s ‘Value Added Tax’ or ‘Goods and Services Tax’ depending on where you live, equivalent to US sales taxes added at the time of purchase. Intangibles means digital products and services.
This is a hugely important opportunity for everyone to voice concerns over the ways in which start-ups and small businesses are being wrecked by the new EU regulations on VAT payable on cross-border digital sales.
It is particularly significant for those in OECD member countries outside the EU such as the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This is the best way to make your voice heard on this matter.
Getting as many responses as possible is vital. These regulations have been devised with the biggest companies in mind. The OECD needs to know the destructive consequences for smaller enterprises and the damage that will do to grassroots economies around the world.
There is currently a Discussion Draft for Public Consultation available here.
http://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/discussion-draft-oecd-international-vat-gst-guidelines.pdf
We need as many people as possible to comment on this document by 20th February 2015.
You need only send two or at most three pages. The more focused your submission is, the better and please use your own words as far as possible. The more individual you make your argument, the more weight it will have.
Having researched previous similar consultations, this is the format we would use:
1. A brief statement of who you are and the reasons for your interest in the implementation of the 2015 EU VAT changes to electronic B2C services.
2. General comments on the problems with EU digital VAT, VATMOSS etc, briefly outlining your key concerns. Keep this section concise, just a couple of lines.
3. Specific issues for you, your business and your particular sector. For each point that you raise, make a direct reference / citation to a specific paragraph in the Discussion Draft (link above). Please cite the paragraph number.
If you find the prospect of searching through that document off-putting, please don’t! We have identified the key reference points for you in the detailed guidelines you can download from HERE as a Word document.
4. Conclusions/Suggestions. If you’re commenting as an individual, you need not include these. If you’re submitting on behalf of a group, you may or may not wish to include the EU VAT Action campaign’s stated aims. It’s entirely up to you.
Please prepare your response and submit it in Word format by e-mail to Piet Battiau, Head of Consumption Taxes Unit, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at piet.battiau@oecd.org.
Once you have sent your submission, please tweet to let us know and to help encourage other people to do the same. Please spread the word about this opportunity for positive action through your other business and social networks."
Tweets should be addressed to @euvataction and you can join in the campaign by following them here https://twitter.com/euvataction
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