Mini One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) – VAT for Digital Services

The Mini One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) was an EU VAT simplification scheme effective from 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2021. It allowed businesses supplying electronically supplied services, telecommunications and broadcasting services to private individuals (B2C) in other EU member states to declare and remit the applicable VAT through a central portal in their home country.

• Two schemes: EU scheme (for EU-established businesses) and non-EU scheme (for third-country businesses)
• Threshold: From 2019: EU-wide threshold of EUR 10,000 — below which home VAT applied (Directive 2017/2455); previously no uniform threshold
• Replacement: Superseded on 1 July 2021 by the expanded One-Stop-Shop (OSS)

MOSS was introduced by Directive 2008/8/EC and was the logical evolution of a special scheme for non-EU businesses (VOES – VAT on Electronic Services) that had existed since 2003. With MOSS, the scheme was extended for the first time to EU-established businesses as well.

The trigger was the new VAT place-of-supply rule for digital services from 2015: instead of the supplier's location, VAT became due at the customer's location. Without MOSS, businesses would have had to register in every member state where they had customers. After 2021, MOSS was fully integrated into the broader OSS framework.

MOSS applied exclusively to:

• Electronically supplied services (e.g. software, apps, e-books, streaming)
• Telecommunications services
• Broadcasting and television services
• Supplied to private individuals (B2C) in other EU member states

Physical goods, other services and B2B supplies were excluded.

• Registration on the MOSS portal of the member state of establishment (EU scheme) or a chosen member state (non-EU scheme)
• Quarterly MOSS VAT return
• Application of the VAT rate of the consumption member state
• Record-keeping for 10 years
• Proof of customer location through two non-contradictory pieces of evidence (from 2019: one piece of evidence sufficient for turnover below EUR 100,000, per Regulation 2017/2459)

2 corrections:
- EUR 10,000 threshold from 2019 missing in summary
- official_url returns HTTP 404
4 clarifications.