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EU, take note. To me the premise is absolutely true: Further unifying the market will spur growth. European start-ups starting in Europe instead of their tiny h

EU, take note. To me the premise is absolutely true: Further unifying the market will spur growth. European start-ups starting in Europe instead of their tiny home country will be a much bigger competition to their US counterparts, which at the moment can often easily crush them, because they already have conquered their rich, big and English speaking home market.

henrikschroder 9y ago
What? It's not exactly VAT rules that are making it hard to expand your business across countries in the EU, it's language and culture barriers.
- xorcist 9y ago
  If you sell goods or services online then the different VAT rules becomes a hard problem once you reach the scale where your EU sales are more than a trickle but not large enough to have a presence in each country. This is quite a big part of online commerce.
  - shortleon 9y ago
    I do not think it is a problem. When ordering from a shop, you pay VAT of the country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own when the product arrives. Of course, if the seller tried a little bit harder, they can charge you the tax of your own country and reap the profits.
    - xorcist 9y ago
      > you pay VAT of the country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own No, this is the whole problem. If the total sales volume to the buyer's country is under a certain limit the above holds true. When you reach the sales limit for that country, the seller is responsible for applying that country's VAT instead, and annually clear VAT with the respective tax office. As you can imagine, keeping track of all these things can quickly become tricky. Not business ending tricky but hard enough to become a problem. A consumer should be presented with prices including tax to avoid surprises, but now prices have to be adjusted at the order stage.
  - henrikschroder 9y ago
    Yes, it's a problem, but I think marketing across language and cultural barriers are a much larger problem, and the new VAT rules are merely a bump in the road in comparison.

henrikschroder 9y ago

What? It's not exactly VAT rules that are making it hard to expand your business across countries in the EU, it's language and culture barriers.

xorcist 9y ago
If you sell goods or services online then the different VAT rules becomes a hard problem once you reach the scale where your EU sales are more than a trickle but not large enough to have a presence in each country. This is quite a big part of online commerce.
- shortleon 9y ago
  I do not think it is a problem. When ordering from a shop, you pay VAT of the country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own when the product arrives. Of course, if the seller tried a little bit harder, they can charge you the tax of your own country and reap the profits.
  - xorcist 9y ago
    > you pay VAT of the country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own No, this is the whole problem. If the total sales volume to the buyer's country is under a certain limit the above holds true. When you reach the sales limit for that country, the seller is responsible for applying that country's VAT instead, and annually clear VAT with the respective tax office. As you can imagine, keeping track of all these things can quickly become tricky. Not business ending tricky but hard enough to become a problem. A consumer should be presented with prices including tax to avoid surprises, but now prices have to be adjusted at the order stage.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Yes, it's a problem, but I think marketing across language and cultural barriers are a much larger problem, and the new VAT rules are merely a bump in the road in comparison.