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U.S. E-Commerce Sites To Collect EU VAT
A concerned US-based e-commerce company with inter writes "While we have all been fighting the Internet sales tax battle here in the U.S., the European Union of 15 countries has recently required that all U.S. companies with web sales to EU citizens start collecting the value-added tax on July 1, 2003. The Washington Post has a good article about this. It seems Ebay, AOL, and others caved in on this without much complaint. Can U.S. Internet taxation be far behind if we have to start collecting and reporting 15 different VAT taxes? And sorry Mr. or Ms. EU Citizen, your website subscription now costs 15% to 25% more, starting July 1. Hope you like this added value."
The U.N. Blue Helmet army will roll them.
Slashdot: Liberal News for Nerds. Liberal Stuff that Matters.
From my cold dead, er, wait . . .
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Give me Liberty or give me, er, hold on . .
If I had a hammer, I'd hammer, no, not that one . .
No taxation without representation! No tea for me!
Crap! Isn't there an old bumper-sticker worthy phrase for this nonsense?
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
If you are buying music CDs 25% cheaper than what the RIAA has determined to be the correct price for your country, you are obviously a pirate. At least one quarter of every CD you own is illegal. With the current strength of the Euro against the dollar it could be as much as one third of every CD. A RIAA audit compliance team will be dispatched to your home to calculate the damages you owe and to cut out the pirated portions of your CDs. You will be notified of the damages you owe us in our press release entitled âoeSurvey shows one third of all CDs in Europe piratedâ
Living in sweden, the only reason that I buy stuff from Amazon is that (even including costs for transports), the books are like 10-15% cheaper, and that music cd:s are like 25% cheaper. If VAT is added, this price difference will be void, and thus I will simply stop buying stuff from USA.
... only when it allows them to bypass the concerns of their local citizens, or constitutional limits on their power, not when it means people might actually shop abroad. It is quite remeniscent of DVD Region coding in a way ... the media cartels don't like globalism either, except when it lets them sell to folks abroad, but only if they can keep the local folks overpaying for exactly the same material.
That is the real point of this. If the governments in question were really interested in collecting taxes, they would be doing so at the customs level, improving oversight and checking of incoming packages. Something that, given the amount of smuggling that goes on wrt drugs, weapons, and who knows what sort of biotoxins and other nice things in the decades to come, they really ought to be doing anyway.
Instead they have laid the burden on US shopkeepers who are not under their jurisdiction. It is no different than the US belligerence in enforcing US laws outside of its own borders, and while it may be refreshing to see the US get a taste of its own medicine, this isn't the US government that is being negatively affected, it is US businesses.
But this is all really besides the point. This is really about protectionism, and keeping folks like yourself from shopping online, outside your own borders, by artificially inflating the costs of shopping abroad. Local and regional governments, including our own here in the US, don't like their citizens shopping outside of their jurisdiction, where their control (and profits) are reduced. In short, our governments don't really like globalism in any real sense all that much
All that having been said, I would prefer the elimination of income tax and capital gains tax in favor of a federal sales tax (even if said tax were 30%), as it would eliminate the governments ability and excuse for examining our personal finances and private lives with a microscope at their whim, and leave only public financial transactions within their pervue. The gain in privacy and personal security (no one fears any part of the government more than the IRS) would be well worth the sticker shock.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Railway lines?
Don't be ridulous - I can buy a HumVee and drive anywhere I want, when I'm not in my private jet.
Organised public transportation is communism - it takes your freedom!
"Reasonable stuff?
Like the porn movies shown on public TV. Or the free housing and dole for illegal immigrants.
Yep, lots of "reasonable" stuff. I'm glad you love the welfare state of Sweden."
Cool! Beats a facist police state anyday. *marks Sweden as a place to go when he leaves the US.*
Well, when I can afford it...
Oops, did I imply that the US was anything other than a Freedom Loving Democrasy (TM) ? *Does 30 hail Bushes and prays to the almighty dollar as penance to appease the armchair patriots and the corporate gods.*
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
We organise things (like health care) the way we like them, and we organise things (like taxes) the way we like them.
Like the extermination of any ethnic group you choose not to like at any particular decade.
And if Americans don't like it, don't like us, don't like the way we do things, don't like the EU, guess what? We don't care...
Good for you! Bout time you got some damn backbone.. In case you haven't noticed... We really haven't given two shits about what you think or care about for a long time...
just the truth...
bye bye karma....
How amusing. I am glad to see that New Jersey has so much in common with it's namesake! Makes a native proud of his grifting heritage.
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
I work with a porn site; starting July 1, US residents will pay $19.95, EU residents will pay $29.95. We have to charge more than the EU tax to cover the administration costs of sorting out 15 different tax zones.
And we'll certainly make it clear to EU residents *why* they're paying 50% more than people who live in the US. On the bright side, they won't really have a choice of going somewhere else, as any remotely major competitor of ours will also be charging more.
My petty side hopes that the US passes a law that EU internet companies have to collect state and local sales tax for the location where US buyers are. I reckon there are about 45,000 different local sales taxes in the US. The administrative costs alone would basically force EU companies to just not sell to US residents.
Cheers
-b
(knock knock knock! Opens door)
You: Why, who are you guys?
Guests: Well, Sir, we are the Royal Police from Great Britton. We are here to collect sales tax that you failed to collect on your website.
You: But this is California, not England.
Guests: Does not matter, we are here to collect.
You: I refuse to pay.
Guests: I am sorry, but we have to arrest you and take you to England....
Table-ized A.I.