The e-commerce iOSS scheme was implemented on 1 July 2021. We are one of the few companies that offered an ‘iOSS Intermediary Service’ from the start to all non-EU established webshops with B2C sales to EU customers. And it has been a bumpy road to get to where we are today. Let’s see where we are now, 6 months down the road.
In this article, Bas de Koning shares his experience with iOSS.
“In reporting their sales, webshops had a steep learning curve. The tax authorities’ iOSS reporting platform was only ready from August, but they expected the VAT declarations to be submitted complete, correct and on time, and to receive the payments immediately. Although that made sense for the authorities, webshops were not always ready to be fully compliant. Common mistakes were the wrong VAT rates or wrong exchange rates being used. This resulted in the VAT declarations not always being in line with the expected amounts as calculated by the webshop or the online basket they used.
Also, when paying the VAT to the tax authorities companies forgot to pay in Euros, or they forgot to mention that all payment costs should be borne by the payer. The tax authorities wanted to receive everything to the cent, and because the tax authorities are mostly used to payments from a local (euro) bank account, and differences caused by exchange rates, bank costs or timing issues were automatically not accepted.”
The conclusion from this article is that the liability for VAT Intermediaries is disproportionate, and that either the definition of ‘distance sales’ should be adjusted, or the EUR 150 threshold for the iOSS scheme should be abolished.
Source: Less Grey
