Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr
The same stores are pretty quick to withold thirty percent of royalties as US tax, Bev, so that publishers like my own (registered outside the USA) have to hire expensive accountants and lawyers to fill in complex forms to prove we have a mutual tax treaty with the IRS.
And, you may have noticed that Amazon only mentions the UK when it comes to excusing its $2 loading as to cover VAT (elsewhere the excuse is wireless costs). The jury is still out on whether an ebook is 'purchased' or 'licenced'. If licenced, Amazon provides a 'service'. VAT is far different on 'services'.
It's all a smoke screen. And it's got to be fixed by the big boys ... under pressure from those at the top of the food chain (that's why they call US the consumers). Neil
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I fully agree it's a smoke screen. But it strikes me as very similar to what happened with downloadable software a few years back. We used to get away with downloading US software directly from the producer's site - free of both US sales tax and European VAT.
Then, they set up some sort of intermediary to collect payments (including VAT). Now it seems most of the time, the truly commercial software is handled by a local distributor for the country. It's all a matter of "ease" for the sellers, not at all for the customers.