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EU Plans to Tax Internet Sales
Arctic Fox writes: "In a bid to help European online sales, the EU is planning to tax online transactions. The article on Yahoo, says that the taxes will apply only to products downloaded from the internet, such as software,videos and music. They may elect to tax physical items (books, hardware,etc) at a later date. American companies will be forced to charge European customers the appropriate VAT in their home country. No details on how this will be enforced."
So, I found a map, located the depot, and trapsed over there. I handed over my card, and the guy said "So, you've been buying from Amazon have you? They're cracking down on all internet purchases you know?". I had to pay the VAT (sales tax) on my CDs bought in the states before I could collect them.
Apparently, almost all internet based purchases from major US sites are now already attacting VAT charges in the UK. I know a friend who bought from Think Geek got stung a few weeks before for the VAT on his purchase.
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
Please acquire a clue before posting. Currently the EU taxes online sales from EU countries to EU citizens. This makes US sites comparatively cheaper and EU citizens make more online purchases at US sites. If the EU taxes online sales from the US to EU citizens, then EU sites become comparatively cheaper. And so EU citizens make more online purchases at EU sites. This is absolutely no different than how tarriffs work.
The last version of the proposal I saw (which is a while back now) set a minimal ceiling below which they didn't consider the hassle of collecting the tax justified nor the practicality of forcing small businesses to collect it.
Within the EU there are similar VAT floors below which VAT is optional (there are cases that it makes sense to charge it when doing business to business work).
This also leads to such fun as people who run two companies, a VAT registered one that paints buildings for businesses (who can claim it back) and a non VAT one that does smaller amounts of business keeps below the VAT limit and paints houses for individuals (who cant)
He put toilet paper all over the house, yard, trees, cars, bushes, fence, dog, etc. It's a common high school prank, usually done to teachers around graduation.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Steps towards UK membership (from the EC-UK website):
All your questions answered here: FAQ
Quote:
How would these proposed VAT rules be enforced in the case of non-EU companies?
These proposals would require VAT registration only in the case of larger operators (over 100,000 of sales to private consumers per annum in the EU). Smaller operators and those with only occasional sales into the Community would be excluded from the scope of the tax.
In the case of larger operators, it is in their own interests to be seen to be in compliance with their legal obligations (including VAT obligations) arising from Internet trading because they themselves want to ensure that others respect their obligations in respect of the operators' rights, for example as regards copyright or other intellectual property rights. Legitimate operators certainly do not want to give credence to the idea that Internet is a zone where laws do not apply - the incentive to voluntary compliance should not therefore be underestimated.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
If you buy anything from outside the UK valued at over £13 and have it brought in third party then yo are meant to pay both duty and VAT on it.
You;ll find this normally does not happen as there are so many parcels coming through that it would be impossible for customs to deal with them all. Net result is they ignore most (but not all)m smaller items and low value items.
Occasionally you will be unlucky and have a small package targetted. This happened to me with some t-shirts I ordered from the US.