The letters issued by Revenue Ireland included details of a Revenue bank account into which the money should be paid and were issued on official stationery. They also included the correct VAT number and details for the business concerned.

The tax authority has now confirmed that this was an error rather than a phishing attack and that the letters can be ignored. Several traders had contacted Revenue Ireland and HMRC over concerns that the letter was part of a scam.

The statement on the Revenue Ireland website reads: ‘Revenue has recently issued approximately 2,000 payment reminder letters to suppliers of eServices who are registered under the VAT MOSS scheme. This is in accordance with the rules of VAT MOSS, where payment has not been received by Revenue in respect of a past tax period.

‘Unfortunately, due to a technical error, the information contained in these reminders is incorrect. Revenue is in the process of correcting the errors. In the meanwhile, the recent payment reminders should be ignored.

‘In due course, new and accurate reminder letters will issue to any remaining customers who have not made the appropriate payments.’

The MOSS scheme was introduced on 1 January 2015 and covers the supply of electronic supplied services by EU businesses to customers based in the EU. The place of supply of such services was changed to where the customer belongs, so that if a business supplies to a customer based in another EU country it has to account for VAT in that country.

All member states implemented the VAT MOSS scheme which allows a business to account for VAT on such services through one central return.

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