EU Commissioner Andrus Ansip, who’s responsible for European Digital Single Market initiatives, is one of the key people we need to convince of the damage being done by the new requirements to tax digital products at place of consumption, not supply.
He’s starting to realise there’s an issue here… and has arranged this Twitter chat. for Monday morning, 23rd February.
Over on the EU VAT Action website, we’ve posted details on how to make the best of this opportunity.
Which is all very well, if you’re on Twitter, live in the same time zone, and not in paid employment at that time, because you run your digital business during your evenings and weekends…
well, firstly, if any of those barriers mean you won’t be able to participate, drop me a line with what you want to say, and I will do so on your behalf. You can also contribute via Facebook if you wish – details on that EU VAT Action update.
Secondly, EU VAT Action is having another online action drive from 5pm GMT on Monday. We really, really need to alert other European finance ministries and tax authorities to the problems all this has created, so we’ve found email and contact details for as many of them as we could, to help people target their communications most effectively.
They need to know how #EUVAT is hurting your business. The more hard data and detail you can give, the better.
They need to know why third-party platforms and tech solutions aren’t the answer. Tell them how much those would cost you – and how they don’t even necessarily help.
They need to know digital microbusiness needs a threshold specifically, and only, in relation to this law, below which they’re exempt from this particular legislation only.
Below that threshold each country’s domestic VAT rules for small businesses would continue to apply, so member states’ national sovereignty over taxation would be untouched.
Digital Microbusiness Action Group 
It seems to me that a second possible angle for campaigning would be to convince payment processors (e.g. Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Checkout etc.) to offer an integrated solution for user location and VAT rules in their checkout process – and to produce automated reports for small businesses. That way, small businesses would not be pressured into signing up to content platforms, but still retain the ability to sell internationally, at least while the EU and national governments reconsider their policy & agreements.
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