4 ms·

>>EU VAT is pretty much straight forward. You are directly contradicting what the parent is commenting on. I honestly can’t tell if your current comment is try

>>EU VAT is pretty much straight forward. You are directly contradicting what the parent is commenting on. I honestly can’t tell if your current comment is trying to be sarcastic, but you are clearly not putting forth consistent arguments. I personally sincerely doubt EU vat is straightforward. Accounting itself is not straight forward and you can’t do any taxes without accounting. I’m a big fan of corporations paying for failure in compliance, but your tone could be slightly more generous. 25 years could be a big deal if one country requires fifo cost accounting and another requires lifo cost accounting. Do you comply with the one that puts you in jail? do you keep 2 books? do you keep seperate books for each country? Then, which do you actually use to make business decisions? These are kind of hard questions to answer, and can require considerable resources.

hef19898 4y ago
You do what every company that has to follow GAAP on top of other accounting rules does, two books, properly audited and bridged. Maybe that stuff isn't straight forward for everyone, it is for pros in the field. It serves to have those pros do these jobs for you. Like, you know, a professional company. And yes, using the correct software suits and processes, intra EU VAT is straight forward and done by litteraly thousands of small businesses every single day. And then there is the less straight forward aspect around optimizing taxes and VAT. But that last bit seems not to be the problem here, is it?
- azmodeus 4y ago
  You seem to know a lot about EU VAT,can you recommend any companies, toools, or resources to learn more?
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Those folks used to have some resources on their website: https://macocustoms.sgs.com/?lang=en https://macocustoms.sgs.com/?lang=en All my experuence comes from running the logistics and supply chains cross border and being involved in the proper system and reporting set-up. One of the lessons learned: get proper tax and customs experts, and do what they say. Also get proper accounting experts.
devonkim 4y ago
From what I’ve read about VAT vs income taxes in terms of politics to make a gross generalization European income taxes are about as simple as US sales taxes for consumers and European VAT is about as complicated as US income taxes. The political levers of power and legislative tooling makes one easier to touch than the another. I’m generally a fan of the spirit of the law over the letter of the law and given the means to hide sources of wealth it seems easier to enforce compliance upon consumption rather than anything else (of course being mindful of the largely regressive nature of consumption taxes). Compliance that punishes smaller businesses disproportionately to multinationals seems awkward, and it’s also unfortunately true that increasing taxes on corporations (like any cost of business) tends to be passed onto buyers of goods and services rather than the intent to structurally promote divestment from consumer-hostile practices.

hef19898 4y ago

You do what every company that has to follow GAAP on top of other accounting rules does, two books, properly audited and bridged. Maybe that stuff isn't straight forward for everyone, it is for pros in the field. It serves to have those pros do these jobs for you. Like, you know, a professional company. And yes, using the correct software suits and processes, intra EU VAT is straight forward and done by litteraly thousands of small businesses every single day. And then there is the less straight forward aspect around optimizing taxes and VAT. But that last bit seems not to be the problem here, is it?

azmodeus 4y ago
You seem to know a lot about EU VAT,can you recommend any companies, toools, or resources to learn more?
- hef19898 4y ago
  Those folks used to have some resources on their website: https://macocustoms.sgs.com/?lang=en https://macocustoms.sgs.com/?lang=en All my experuence comes from running the logistics and supply chains cross border and being involved in the proper system and reporting set-up. One of the lessons learned: get proper tax and customs experts, and do what they say. Also get proper accounting experts.

devonkim 4y ago

From what I’ve read about VAT vs income taxes in terms of politics to make a gross generalization European income taxes are about as simple as US sales taxes for consumers and European VAT is about as complicated as US income taxes. The political levers of power and legislative tooling makes one easier to touch than the another. I’m generally a fan of the spirit of the law over the letter of the law and given the means to hide sources of wealth it seems easier to enforce compliance upon consumption rather than anything else (of course being mindful of the largely regressive nature of consumption taxes). Compliance that punishes smaller businesses disproportionately to multinationals seems awkward, and it’s also unfortunately true that increasing taxes on corporations (like any cost of business) tends to be passed onto buyers of goods and services rather than the intent to structurally promote divestment from consumer-hostile practices.