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You have to cut Amazon some slack there. They have to deal with all kinds of stupid regulations that demand different compensations to copyright collectives whe

You have to cut Amazon some slack there. They have to deal with all kinds of stupid regulations that demand different compensations to copyright collectives whether e.g. Amazon.de sends a memory card to a visitor from Germany or Austria (or elsewhere) and the fact that they have merchants listed in their marketplaces from other countries than the marketplace itself (so the greedy copyright collectives from that other country demand their share) further complicates things. As if the VAT regulations and translations for all products (and reviews and sometimes product info entered by users) and (former) price fixing on books for some countries weren't complicated enough already ...

surfingdino 14y ago
VAT and sales tax is something that kills businesses. It is a tax specifically designed to be punitive and it is a major stumbling block in growing a business.
- pmjordan 14y ago
  [citation needed] I dislike paying taxes as much as the next person, but where exactly are you getting these supposed facts from? Particularly in retail, the fact that VAT is an indirect tax doesn't really matter much as late payment basically doesn't happen. (whereas I'll accept that it can sink your company if you invoice your customer some huge amount and they don't pay and you still owe the VAT on revenue that never materialised)
- lazyjones 14y ago
  VAT exists only because greedy, inefficient governments could tax everyone (esp. lower incomes) easily with it. It seems most unfair to online retailers, because they usually only earn a fraction of the government's cut per sale (around here: typically 1/4th for electronics, i.e. 20% VAT, 5% merchants' margin).
pmjordan 14y ago
I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, they seem to handle the complexity admirably: you can buy most items from anywhere in Europe from any of the sites and they charge all the appropriate fees. Which makes it all the more odd that the individual sites are so different and disjoint, when they're clearly all the same at the back-end.

surfingdino 14y ago

VAT and sales tax is something that kills businesses. It is a tax specifically designed to be punitive and it is a major stumbling block in growing a business.

pmjordan 14y ago
[citation needed] I dislike paying taxes as much as the next person, but where exactly are you getting these supposed facts from? Particularly in retail, the fact that VAT is an indirect tax doesn't really matter much as late payment basically doesn't happen. (whereas I'll accept that it can sink your company if you invoice your customer some huge amount and they don't pay and you still owe the VAT on revenue that never materialised)
lazyjones 14y ago
VAT exists only because greedy, inefficient governments could tax everyone (esp. lower incomes) easily with it. It seems most unfair to online retailers, because they usually only earn a fraction of the government's cut per sale (around here: typically 1/4th for electronics, i.e. 20% VAT, 5% merchants' margin).

pmjordan 14y ago

I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, they seem to handle the complexity admirably: you can buy most items from anywhere in Europe from any of the sites and they charge all the appropriate fees. Which makes it all the more odd that the individual sites are so different and disjoint, when they're clearly all the same at the back-end.