Selling refills: digi shops and new EU tax laws

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Bonkhead
Posts: 335
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

03 Feb 2015


I'm located in EU so I can't work around the new tax laws which, if I understand correctly, makes me keep a huge administration about digital sales to other countries and their own VAT percentages. If this is even possible with the available data.
This can be shortcutted by selling through a third party shop, like pheads, but there must be ways/other shops which handles your sales with lower percentage cuts ? Or use of redirected ip adresses ?
I remember buying software like sylenth1 and tone2 stuff through a german digi distributor, but not sure how things are now. Any ideas on the matter ?

tibah
Posts: 903
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

03 Feb 2015

I believe Tone2 used share.it for years and just recently switched to their own shop (or at least integrated it better into their site).

For ReFills you may get your products into the Nucleus Soundlab shop, as they sell several ReFills from different guys.



Ostermilk
Posts: 1535
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

03 Feb 2015

Shops like the Prop shop have obviously catered for it as have many suppliers I've used over the last month.

I think personally that many payment providers like Paypal will fall into line before too long.

There are already low cost solutions available too for anybody that doesn't have the minerals to setup their own VAT compliant stores in the way that many have managed to do already.

i.e.

http://www.taxamo.com/



Edited to remove opinionated verbiage...OM

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Bonkhead
Posts: 335
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

03 Feb 2015


I see www.sellfy.com change their options. 2 other shops I had bookmarked stopped doing business.
http://blog.sellfy.com/new-eu-vat-rules/

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mcatalao
Competition Winner
Posts: 1824
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

11 Feb 2015

This new EU rules are killing small electronic businesses... I guess you will be better off cutting the deal with Propellerhead and let them sort the VAT part for you.  

Ostermilk
Posts: 1535
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

11 Feb 2015

mcatalao wrote:This new EU rules are killing small electronic businesses... I guess you will be better off cutting the deal with Propellerhead and let them sort the VAT part for you.  
It is?

You could read the link to Taxamo I showed earlier and use a service like that which would cost you as little as 0.02% up to a maximum of 0.20 per transaction.

You could also do it yourself for free if you didn't mind spending the administration hours on it.

That shouldn't really kill anyone, or were you using the term 'kill' as a bit of hyperbole there?  What isn't helping the EU market, vendors and customers alike is people listening to the gossip put out on the devil's radio about the issue.

It's a good thing for customers actually because vendors can't state that you are liable for taxes in your local area in their small print, which you only to discover when you've got the local VAT man coming at you for tax on some old purchases you've long since forgotten about.  Vendors are now liable for it's collection, the customers are liable for it's payment at the point of purchase, which is exactly the same thing that happens if you buy anything from a bricks and mortar shop based in any EU country.

The reality for me living in the UK is that I've yet to use a world-wide supplier this year where the VAT hasn't been itemised and billed correctly.  I've come across a couple of 'hold-outs' among indie Refill developers specifically that since January have refused to supply to the EU, but that's their perogative if they reckon what they've got to do to comply is more costly than the loss of a large territory to do business with then that's their choice.

Of course YMMV

Truth be told all Tax sucks AFAIC but having run businesses in the past that traded over the UK VAT threshold since the '80's you've got to be part of the HMRC's tax collection service to take part in that kind of enterprise.

If you are serious about running a business you'll have a decent accountant who can clarify what your obligations are and you'll be able to discuss VAT issue expicitly with your local Customs and Revenue office and you'll find both of things to be more fruitful than banking your intended business future on what you hear on the internet.

avasopht
Competition Winner
Posts: 3931
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

11 Feb 2015

Just like Ostermilk said, Taxamo sorts it out, no problem.

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