forum.vdsworld.com

Garrett

I just found out about this in another forum.... I'm not sure what to
make of this. Nor am I sure that the EU can impose such a thing on
vendors outside of the EU. Anyone else have any insight on the below
information:

PGWARE · **Web Host** Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Posts: 1566

I read this on news.com about 2 weeks ago. It's really not that troubling. I use setSystems (a company of RegNet) to handle my sales, it will be up to them to pay any taxes since they handle the actual sales. It's really not that difficult even if I had to handle the tax.

But I think this tax only applies to companies that actually operate within Europe. For instance if ebay (a US company) setup shop within Europe and sold stuff via www.ebay.uk then they would need to pay the vat tax. I don't know or think this effects anyone operating within the US selling products to people in Europe - however it may I'm not really sure.

If they are trying to impose the tax worldwide on anyone selling products to one of their citizens I can see this effect their economy greatly. Alot of companies may focus less on Europe as a market to sell to online, also higher fee's might be imposed on people living in Europe to offset the cost of the tax. Either way it hurts the consumer within Europe as they will be paying more for goods to offset the cost of the tax, I sincerely doubt many companies will take the hit and cut the tax out of the product price.

Serge · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:42 am Post subject:

i think that it does apply to non-eu folks selling stuff to folks in eu which does mean an absolute nightmare if you handle the transactions yourself

like pgware, i use regsoft which takes care of the vat for me so i have nothing to worry about

question: how are they going to monitor whether non-eu folks making sales over the net from eu folks have paid their vat?

serge

Skit3000 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:45 am Post subject:

They can't?! Confused

Serge · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:57 am Post subject:

so why bring a law that cannot be enforced??!?!??!

serge

Dr. Dread · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 8:28 am Post subject:

He-he. I see that you don't know the workings of true bureaucracy Confused

Not only will this be extremely difficult to enforce, but it will be a major technical problem to establish where each
customer is situated - as VAT is to be paid according to the buyer's country of residence it will really make a
difference because VAT spans between 13 and 25 per cent in various EU countries..

Greetz
Dread

Serge · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:05 am Post subject:

this is a great example of not really thinking about an issue before making it law...somebody did not do his/her homework...how can you bring out a law that is not enforcable and not workable...and this from leaders...the mind boggles Sad

serge

Skit3000 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:35 am Post subject:

Well, maybe it is possible to track transactions down, because there already is a law in The Netherlands which says that ISPs need to log everything...

Dr. Dread · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:42 am Post subject:

Mostly you can track down transactions. But that will probably require a court order to obtain that information
from ISPs. Can you imagine anyone doing that for a shareware sale of $10?

So Internet vendors will be left to acquire such information themselves, preferably on-the-fly if
they wanna pass the relevant tax to each customer. I doubt it that this can be done with any amount of
certainty within the next few years.

Greetz
Dread

PGWARE · **Web Host** Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Posts: 1566

Just got an email from Regnet today which they sent to all developers listed with them that they will soon be collecting VAT, so those that are worried need not. If your using a registration service such as RegNet they will be handling the taxation issues.

Tommy · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:51 pm Post subject:

FreezingFire · **Admin Team** Joined: 23 Jun 2002 Posts: 3508

Here's a page with some info:

http://www.portland.co.uk/vat.esp