4 ms·
> For example, my understanding is that businesses anywhere in the world are supposed to charge EU customers VAT starting this year. Dream on. I've been follow
by AnssiH 9y ago
> For example, my understanding is that businesses anywhere in the world are supposed to charge EU customers VAT starting this year. Dream on.
I've been following the EU VAT plans somewhat closely, and I'm not aware of any such changes affecting non-EU businesses occurring this year. Or maybe I missed it, could well be...
Sellers of digital services situated outside the EU already have been supposed to charge VAT from EU customers for a few years now (since Jan 2015 IIRC).
For physical goods, some additional measures are in the pipeline for 2021 - e.g. marketplaces become responsible for collecting VAT on some imports, and sellers outside EU can pre-remit VAT for a fast-track customs procedure for some imports, and VAT-exempt small imports will end - but nothing that requires all non-EU businesses to charge VAT from EU customers, they can still leave it to end-customer to pay on delivery (unless the marketplace took care of it).
- ryanwaggoner 9y agoYeah, I’m wrong about this, it happened awhile ago. It just seems insane to me. I don’t understand how some random country thinks they have jurisdiction over the entire globe just because someone else sold their citizen something digital. If you want to tax that transaction, I think the best you can do is hold the citizen responsible for payment. But of course, tax law is not usually about what’s right or logical or fair. It’s about what you can enforce and get away with.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoA random country clearly has the power to ban imports. Would you prefer that over paying taxes?
- Feniks 9y agoEU is not a country. It does however represent the world's biggest unified market. And as the US clearly demonstrates: taxation is better done centrally.
- JoeAltmaier 9y agoWell, its certainly trying to behave like one then! Uniform currency, no border enforcement/passport requirement, law enforcement that spans members. Its as much like a country as the United States individual states are a country? Anyway, taxation is, as the famous dude said, the art of plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least squawking. Any semblance to a rational system is only there to appease/content the citizens as they get plucked.