US e-tailers hit by European ecommerce tax

So this means anyone who has a website, even a mom&pop site, will have to register as a EU VAT and charge EU VAT for any european orders?

Yea, great way to promote global business. Most small and medium businesses will just decline to accept orders from EU.

BTW, I wonder how this will effect open markets like Ebay? If I list a product on ebay and someone in France buys it, do I have to add VAT? How will it be enforced? (answer: it can't be!)

seems everyone is trying to make money from everything these days, they mention charging us in NZ, GST (our version of VAT) but couldnt inforce it and would drive investors offshore.

some crowd has even tried patenting the hyper link and may want royalties from every webmaster in future, could be an interesting court battle as they reckon this company (sorry forgot the name) was the first to use hyperlinks but in old yale uni film footage shows them using hyperlinks some 10+ years before.

a way around the VAT thing is to have an offshore bank account and funds depoisted into there, it was debated here for some while and ended up saying govnerment would actually loose out (people saving money in other countries) rather than make anything.

It's just another example of the European Union Ministers putting their fingers into pies that they shouldn't even be allowed to smell let alone touch!! It really bugs me that they sit in Brussels making up all these regulations that we all have to follow just because it's their whim, like straight bananas and cucumbers!! Oooh, they really do pee me off, it's bad enough that everyone has gone Euro (except us Brits it seems) they just want us all to loose our individuality!!!

**Rant over**

The hyperlink saga is actually BT (British Telecom) and I think it's rediculous

Quote: Hyperlinks: Why BT may be right but is still so wrong - The web isn't a web without links...

Rummaging through the empty cardboard boxes and assorted junk that escaped the last trip to the dump something catches your eye in the gloom of the attic. It's a complete set of china you haven't seen since your grandparents passed it on to an ungrateful and younger you many years ago. Dusty, it may be, but it looks in pretty good shape.

Nevertheless, it's hardly an heirloom. Or so you think. A couple of informed conversations later, however, and it turns out what you've found is almost certainly original Wedgewood and, if sold, would go a long way to paying off your mortgage.

Just like you, BT made a lucky discovery recently and, just like you, BT is hoping to cash in. But while your news is greeted with goodwill and a jokey 'You lucky sod', BT is likely to find itself short of friends in its quest to secure its fortune.

BT will be in a New York courtroom - crumpled patent in hand - today out to show it owns perhaps the most ubiquitous piece of technology on the internet today. BT's 'Hidden Page' patent dates back to work carried out developing the Prestel text system in the mid-1970s. Hidden Page is akin (identical, insists BT) to the hypertext links.

The legal profession may be divided on the merits of BT's case, but public opinion is not. For the vast majority of web users this will smack of the worst kind of opportunism.

Forget for a moment that others - most notably the Stanford Research Institute as long ago as 1968 - may have a more genuine claim to this piece of intellectual property and consider the implications of a BT win.

Websites are littered with common conventions - some rooted in good design, others rooted in technology. All help people navigate from within and between sites and all play on the strengths of an interconnected world.

Now imagine if the 'inventor' of the first search engine, or the 'creator' of the first "email to a friend" button, or indeed the 'developer' of the first discussion forum decides he should get royalties for every iteration of an original idea? The internet would soon grind to a halt.

It would spell disasters for the publishers, the e-tailers and - most of all - the users of the web. And none of these concepts - undoubtedly demonstrating intellectual prowess - is more integral to the internet than hyperlinks. After all, the web is not a web without links.
Nobody denies the right of an individual or a company to protect their hard-earned inventions but the internet has prospered precisely because it was allowed to develop virtually untouched by commercial concerns through the late 1960s and in to the mid-1990s. Others haven't sought financial gain, and neither should BT.

If BT wants to make money out of the web it should seek to help make the UK a leader in broadband. And if it wants to give value to its shareholders it should do it through its core business - telephony.

It should not seek to profit from a piece of good fortune that threatens to do enormous damage just when the internet is recovering from the worst decline in its history. Antiques Roadshow, this ain't.

These laws and rulings can't be enforced. Especially not in a free market, world/global trading economy.

I can see an e-business home based in one of those countries having to comply. That's logical. And someone out side the EU but who actively markets into the EU, yea I guess I'd agree with that. But the open world wide nature of the net means anyone can buy/sell to anyone. And I don't business turning away customers just because the customer is in country X and the EU or some other economic group says you have to be registered to sell there.

Gotta love that hyperlink stuff. Kinda like Compuserve trying enforce licensing of GIF files - so everyone switched to JPEG's!

Just thought I would resurrect this thread as I have just had a very interesting chat with Customs & Excise. The reason why is that I shall be starting out on my own this year and I needed to register for VAT.

From what I gather if I sell hosting or web design services to someone outside the EU, if they "use and enjoy" the service outside the EU, I don't have to account for the tax.

In th UK for the same person I would have to charge vat. The whole thing is negligble anyway as I can claim back the vat in the UK and reverse charge the vat if I buy internationally so it doesn't really affect anyone in the UK, esepecially if you trade less than £56,000 per year in which case you don't even register for vat

Not sure about the rules in other countries but it won't really affect brits if you do it properly...

VAT - my question is where is the value from this added tax? By being VAT registered all we are really is unpaid bloody tax inspectors!!! More paperwork!

There is no "value" in the straictest sense. The whole VAT system is pretty pointless for a vat registered business. You pay customs the vat you charge people and claim back the vat you pay for business purposes.

Personally I think they should scrap the whole system as it would mean one less return to have to fill in!