Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Interesting business decision. Was the cost of compliance that high, or was your revenue that trivial? the cost of having to pay VAT on all of my UK REVENUES (digital services, remember!) would vastly dominate the PROFIT (not revenue) made from my EU sales compliance wise, I'd rather not have to fill in VAT returns if it is optional (this is a side business, not my main employment) > Well I was having a conversatio…
I'm not sure you have that right. I don't professionally engage with MOSS so I will not give advice, but I professionally do work with VAT and handle some millions in VAT a year, so I am pretty familiar with the dreaded VAT guide. All quotes are from the aforementioned resource > the cost of having to pay VAT Presumably you mean the higher price from charging VAT > on all of my UK REVENUES "your UK sales will not be…
given the cabinet doesn't seem to know what their objective is, this seems like a fantastical claim
> When did you ever pay VAT to the EU?
not directly, but that's why it exists and where (a chunk of) the money goes -- read about the history of the VAT, it used to form the 40% of the EU's budget (down to about 14% these days)
> Not at all, the UK government will enforce on its behalf, as we will expect them to enforce on our behalf.
doesn't work like that in practice, once we're out HMRC isn't going to spend money chasing people for taxes due in Bulgaria, in the same way it doesn't chase people for taxes owed in Russia today
> The UK is in the process of bringing all EU law into UK law (where it isn't already) with the strangely titled Great Repeal Bill.
yes
> so EU law will apply to you.
no, at that point it will be UK law
> Also the government have committed to an open border in Northern Ireland as mandated by the Good-Friday agreement.
depends on what they mean by "open" -- regardless of that: there's nothing that prevents a customs border in the good-friday agreement (have a read, it's only about 10 pages long: [1])
> (various points based on the assumption that the government will commit absolutely to one policy voters don't care about and completely abandon all others)
the government has also committed to leaving the EU customs union and the single market
I agree that it's hard to see how both are possible, but politics is the art of the fudge
> I wonder against that backdrop how you think you are going to be outside of EU law?
I don't accept the premise or the conclusion -- b) doesn't violate the GFA[1] or the confidence and supply agreement[2] (not a coalition)
to be blunt: it seems like you're making things up
> You seem to have a downer on the EU, if you don't mind me saying?
why should I like it? if you're running a medium sized or big business it's fantastic (unless you're a large foreign business like Facebook, Amazon or Microsoft), but I'm trying to run a small business, and it seems like they're doing their best to kill me
hell, if in 5 years we're still subject to the ever increasing mountains of poorly thought out legislation written by morons, I suppose emigration is always an option
[1]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-belfast-agree...
[2]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/conservative-and-...