The New EU VAT Rules !

[FredNL]

Does it also concern your company in Thailand ???

The law applies to “broadcasting, telecommunications, and e-services that are electronically supplied”. The e-services definition applies to a surprising number of things, including…

• images or text, such as photos, screensavers, e-books and other digitised documents e.g. PDF files
• music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of programmes on demand
• online magazines
• website supply or web hosting services
• distance maintenance of programmes and equipment
• supplies of software and software updates
• advertising space on a website

The rules apply to all sellers providing digital services to customers within the EU, no matter where in the world the seller is located.

Quite how this will be enforced is unclear, but we are hearing noise that other countries will follow suit if this is successful – so unless we stop this now, expect selling outside your own borders to get even more complicated in years to come!

Read about it: http://euvataction.org/key-facts/ and http://www.ecwid.com/blog/how-the-new-value-added-tax-guidelines-for-selling-digital-goods-affect-your-online-store.html

Well I am not planning to pay one penny / cent !!!

[VBF]

If the seller is outside the EU with no associated companies based or trading in the EU, I can see no way in which this could be enforced.

For multi-nationals there may be repercussions of course.

Sabre-rattling?

it also occurs to me that the Thai law requiring companies to be majority Thai owned will for once be of assistance to the companies involved - I doubt any Thai directors would worry about an EU tax demand even if personalties were traceable!

Of course the purchasers may be harried to pay VAT but no different to them having to pay import duty.

Edited January 28, 2015 by VBF

[Xircal]

That link has misrepresented the facts IMHO. The new VAT rate only applies to digital downloads such as online courses, e-books and similar. Businesses are also at liberty to charge the minimum rate which is 15%.

Here's a list of VAT rates per country: http://www.vatlive.com/vat-rates/european-vat-rates/eu-vat-rates/

I think this change is primarily intended for the UK since businesses there were exempt from charging VAT if their services didn't exceed £81,000 per annum. See this article in the Guardian for more info.