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State of seller determines the tax rate. In the EU, if you're British and buying from Germany, you pay German, not British, VAT rates - they should copy that.
by tehwalrus 13y ago
State of seller determines the tax rate.
In the EU, if you're British and buying from Germany, you pay German, not British, VAT rates - they should copy that.
Agreed though, that British VAT isn't as simple as it could be (whole categories exempt, etc.)
- mjn 13y agoThat's not true in the EU across the board. If you're buying by mail-order, and the seller is above a certain size (small sellers exempt to reduce the compliance burden), they have to assess VAT based on the shipping address. For example, when I order from Amazon.co.uk to Denmark, Amazon charges me Denmark's VAT rates (which are higher and don't exempt books, alas).
- tehwalrus 13y agointeresting! I was basing my knowledge here on having paid "German VAT" on a smartphone from amazon.de (they had it slightly cheaper and much earlier than anyone in the UK.) Maybe I got confused, but I was sure at the time it was a different %age. Maybe I was above the threshold.
- TomaszZielinski 13y agoNot quite true. The rule of thumb is that VAT is a tax on consumers, not businesses. Of course there are hundreds of exceptions to that. If you are a British company buying services from Germany then the seller shouldn't charge you a penny, then you charge the British VAT on the purchase and then deduct it if only the purchase is related to _your_ taxable sale(s). But if you are a British consumer then the seller should charge you the German VAT. That's the general case, there are exceptions to that and exceptions to exceptions so don't bite me please :) By the way, the national VAT bills have to be complex simply because they are meant to mirror the EU directive: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006L0112:EN:NOT http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...