The EU has adopted new VAT rules for ecommerce websites. Previously, online retailers had had to register VAT in each EU country that they were operating in. This was a laborious, time-consuming and expensive process, with companies having to pay around €8,000 per country to complete the registration process. Under the new rules, online retailers can now file one tax return to register for VAT for the entire European Union. This vastly simplifies the process for ecommerce sites, and is also much cheaper. The EU estimates that it will save businesses €2.3 billion overall. It has also tried to keep things simple for small businesses. If a company makes less than €10,000 in cross-border sales in a year, then they can just apply the VAT rules used in their home country.Â
