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New EU VAT rules change the game for digital businesses

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Deozaan:
I still don't understand how or why I should pay taxes to a foreign government, or under what authority they're going to try to force me to do so. This is so confusing. . .

dr_andus:
I still don't understand how or why I should pay taxes to a foreign government, or under what authority they're going to try to force me to do so. This is so confusing. . .
-Deozaan (December 31, 2014, 04:27 PM)
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I'm not an expert and I haven't read through all the documentation, but I can see a logic to it. E.g. if a US based business sells a product to an EU customer online, than that's either a cross-border transaction (the US business is exporting its product to the EU, and then customs duty applies, as it has done for centuries), or the US website when it's available in the EU is like a subsidiary operating in the EU (since it has access to the customers there), and therefore it should collect all the same applicable VAT taxes on the transaction as all the other local businesses and pass them on to the government (otherwise local businesses would be less competitive). In a way the EU is just catching up with a loophole in tax collection, the Internet being the new frontier that it is. So I can see the logic. But as for the implementation, I hope the outcome of this will not just be US websites declining to sell to EU customers. But if your payment gateway service does this for you as part of their service anyway (and many have been doing it for years), then the US business doesn't even need to know that it's happening.

4wd:
There was a case in Canada where a fellow refused to collect taxes at his business. Of course he was taken to court, but he won. He claimed that forcing him to collect taxes on behalf of the government was forced labour, and the judge agreed. -Renegade (November 25, 2014, 07:59 PM)
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Jean-Serge_Brissonw ?

TaoPhoenix:

This just feels like a mess, I'm too tired to read it in detail right now, but roughly, if I have to look up strange (to me) laws in other countries every time I make a transaction, that would just sink my motivation to do it at all.

Because there would be nothing stopping every country ever deciding to make such a rule. So I presume the seller is operating the tax collection, but it's still rather harder than it is now.

Renegade:
There was a case in Canada where a fellow refused to collect taxes at his business. Of course he was taken to court, but he won. He claimed that forcing him to collect taxes on behalf of the government was forced labour, and the judge agreed. -Renegade (November 25, 2014, 07:59 PM)
--- End quote ---

Jean-Serge_Brissonw ?
-4wd (December 31, 2014, 06:17 PM)
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Ah! THANK YOU! I found out about that fellow a while back here, but couldn't remember the reference. Got it bookmarked now.


I still don't understand how or why I should pay taxes to a foreign government, or under what authority they're going to try to force me to do so. This is so confusing. . .
-Deozaan (December 31, 2014, 04:27 PM)
--- End quote ---

(Oh man... you just opened up a fantastic opportunity for me to have some fun~! ;D Thanks!  :Thmbsup: )


The extortionists in your region have their own set of "rules" by which they extort you. Same goes for other extortion territories. In the past, all the extortionists agreed not to extort people on other extortionists turfs, but with the Internet now, they're finding that there's a lot of new commerce that their rules don't cover, and they're drooling over how to extend their extortion rackets.

So, now they're drafting treaties and agreements between themselves on how to extend their extort rackets.

This is in part due to how people feel that their local extortionists are too harsh on them, and how other people get off easy. It is highly visible in the EU extortion turf where any transaction incurs a 25% protection fee.

But if you sell, oh, let's say widgets online from outside the EU to people in the EU, then you're not paying the 25% protection fee. For retailers in the EU that sell widgets, this is a serious problem as they can't really compete with you.

They then complain to their extortionists, and the regional gangs of extortionists then get together to figure out how they can carve up this new turf and make the people they extort happier that other people are getting screwed just as badly as they are. The solution is to have your regional extortionists break your legs on behalf of the extortionists in the EU. Of course your extortionists will be compensated by the EU extortionists in one way or another, so that makes it all "fair".







;D

Because... Who will build the ROADZ!

"The Privatization of Roads and Highways" by Walter Block. (Speaking on the topic.)

Drat... That didn't work...

Because... FIRE FIGHTERS!

The CFA is a volunteer and community based fire and emergency services organisation that is made up of around 61,000 members. Of these members, some 59,000 are volunteers

...

The SACFS is staffed by approximately 15,000 volunteer fire fighters and around 120 paid employees.

In 2011, there were about 1.1 million firefighters in the country. 31% were paid, the remainder volunteer.

...

Of these, 28% are career and 72% are volunteer.

Hmm...

Let the tarring & feathering of the heretic Renegade begin~! ;D  :Thmbsup:


 

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