EU VAT Moss targeted for fraud from Ireland
- Aug 15, 2015 | Richard Asquith
Ireland-based fraudsters are targeting EU businesses providing digital services to consumers. The deception involves raising bogus Irish VAT assessments which have been posted or emailed to companies in the rest of the EU.
Many companies selling apps, software, streaming video or music or fees for online membership or newspaper sites have been receiving fraudulent letters purporting to be from the Collector General’s office at the Irish Revenue. The letters are raising VAT assessments for the second quarter of 2015 under the new 2015 e-services MOSS regime. However, the banking details provided are not those of the Revenue.
The companies so far targeted are based in the US, UK and Netherlands. Their details have been obtained from official MOSS registration data.
2015 EU VAT changes on digital services
The companies have registered with the new Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) portals provided as part of changes to the EU VAT regime on e-services. From 1 January 2015, providers must charge the VAT rate of the country of their customers instead of their own country. Rather than forcing providers to register in each EU country they are selling to, EU member states created online portals where providers could file a single return and payment. The country tax authorities would then distribute the VAT collected to the appropriate countries.
