Is this going to be a good or bad thing? A Digital Single Market for Europe: Commission sets out 16 initiatives to make it happen http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4919_en.htm While like probably most people i first, and wholly, thought this to be a positive thing when you dig a little deeper it seems it comes with some negatives, like making parcel delivery more efficient and affordable, ending unjustified geo-blocking, a modern more European copyright law, and a common VAT threshold. The above link goes into more details of the other proposals but i think it's safe to say they could have wide ranging consequences for individuals, governments, and copyright enforcement bodies. What proposals do the BT forum goers consider good or bad news?
Absolutely not. All the economic problems we're currently facing are due to globalization. A single EU market will only make it easier for the multinationals to play our elected officials against each other. Have we learned nothing about deregulating markets since 2008? A single market must be attached to a single set of laws, otherwise you're gonna have a bad time...
So playing devils advocate, isn't removal of geo-blocking, affordable parcel delivery, common VAT threshold maybe meaning ours will go down, being able to access your Netflix et al library across the EU, data protection rules, aren't they good things? There must be some positives other than just the removal of geo-blocking, maybe someone can do a better job at finding the positives because I'm not very good at being a devils advocate.
Negatives are for licencers of the copyrighted works - question is if that is good or bad (depending if it will increase the cost of licencing, which they could transfer to customers). For example let's take a look at F1 - http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/27/fans-worldwide-reveal-cost-watching-f1-2015/ . All those licences to specific countries won't be possible under new rules, so Bernie will either increase the price, or he will accept the fact that users from whole Europe will be able to watch it on Sky or RTL if they can subscribe to that station. Or for example BBC won't be allowed to limit the iPlayer to UK only, and similar things.
I thought you paid VAT on something when it's imported at the local rate anyhow, so for instance if I imported a car from Germany i would have to pay the VAT when they unload my car at the docks. Going on the words they use maybe Finland will see it's VAT rate drop, they do mention a common VAT threshold so that seems like there saying no country can set VAT above a certain rate (Did i just type that). And you never know we may get better data protection rules seeing as the MEP's weren't to happy about all that spying malarkey (OK I need to have a lie down after typing that one)
Officially you are supposed to pay your local VAT when ordering online, but probably no one else except Amazon actually does this. Amazon is the single exception - for example if an UK person orders a book (not ebook) on Amazon UK, then that person pays 0% VAT rate - but if i would order it on Amazon UK, they would charge me the 20% VAT we have here.
Ah...nope, you'll get refunded the German VAT and be taxed the local VAT PLUS any additional taxes that your country will have. This may be different for importing used goods (cars) into Finnland, but for instance importing into the NL from Germany you pay the local luxury tax on motorvehicles. The older the vehicle, this percentage goes down though.
Maybe a common VAT threshold would be a good idea, because these VAT rules seem as clear as mud to me.
15% is minimum; there might be a reduced rate for some goods, no lower than 5% (with rare exceptions agreed when a country joined the EU - like the UK 0% book VAT rate). There is no upper limit, Hungary has the highest in EU right now with 27% VAT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax The case of car is described at the end of the "Co-ordinated administration of value added tax within the EU" section : Sale via internet (distance sales) to other country is a different thing, especially one you hit certain values : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax#Distance_sales So in most cases, shops should charge you your local VAT rate for internet sales.
If you did read it through, you would have realized the company has to have VAT ID in each and every EU member state it sells to, and report VAT to each and every country . In any case, the point is still valid - stores are supposed to charge the buyers VAT on online sales; you should get a local VAT only if you buy something in person in that country.
If you LIVE in Germany, buy the car, then MOVE to another EU country....yes. If you LIVE in Finland, go to Germany to buy a private car, and drive it back to Finland, no. I think we misunderstood eachother a bit here
Sorry, taking this even more offtopic but... Sorry, not challenging you personally, but you're the last to comment and have put it quite succinctly... My understanding is the same as JRS, unless there are some very specific Finnish laws you're referring to? E.G. As a UK resident, having flown out to Germany for the sole purpose of buying a car, I head to the showroom and buy the first motor that takes my fancy off the floor in Germany. I pay cash, in full, and drive home to the UK. I have paid all manner of taxes on the vehicle in Germany, therefore I am not subject to paying import tax in the UK or the difference in the rate of VAT as we are both EU members?
Interestingly music store charge your local VAT rate: http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/CountryMap Since Germany has the lowest VAT rate, I imagine that they paying the 19% to the German government and pocketing the extra 1% to 6% charged on all non German transactions for themselves.
Odd, as it's considered an Import. (at least in Germany and the Netherlands) People buying a car from a dealership outside of Germany and then coming here are obliged to go throught the tax routine I described above. So do people getting vehicles from Germany to the Netherlands. I've looked it up, according to the German responsible tax authority, a (new) car you would buy here would be tax free in Germany, but needs to be taxed completely in your country AND VICE VERSA. Ill link it but it's in German
And again, no. If they charge you your local VAT rate, they are required to have tax number for your country. And pay VAT to that country. So if you are a german store, selling to whole EU, then you need to have 28 tax numbers, one for each country, and pay VAT for every country separately. No one is pocketing anything.
That seems like an usual overhead for a business to self impose in what is likely a high volume low margin business. Especially if there is no legal requirement.
