UK e-book prices to rise from 1st January 2015

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tompe

Why is that the case? Why is not Amazon taking care of adding the correct tax to the price?

They didn't give a reason, but I suspect it has to do with Fjtorres logic. Some authors change prices monthly and they may vary price changes from one country to another. I would prefer that the tax be added in such a way that I don't have to worry about it, but it is a rather large jump in pricing so some indies may want to keep their prices lower to be attractive to buyers looking for low prices. Pricing in indie-world is very competitive, which is why there are so many freebies or 99 cent sales.

When an author isn't just at Amazon, it gets even more complicated because there are different retailer rules, different commissions, lots of passwords to track...lots of spreadsheets...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

When an author isn't just at Amazon, it gets even more complicated because there are different retailer rules, different commissions, lots of passwords to track...lots of spreadsheets...

And for *some* indies, the sales at the alternate sites barely justify the time spent managing the multiple channels. Hence the fairly large number of Kindle exclusives at any given time.

Which, come to think of it, may be another unintended consequence of the new rules. Amazon may not only get new authors and titles, they may get more exclusives if the complexity outweighs the sales.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Ghitulescu

Well, in case you didn't know, the VAT are deducted for companies, and only the end user pays for the cumulated "added" value .

[...]

That answer gets you a failing grade (except that US business schools teach VAT so badly they might not notice).

It's registered businesses that can deduct VAT paid but must charge VAT to their customers (who may be other businesses). And some businesses like insurance companies can't do this - in VAT terminology they are "exempt".

And all the VAT on an export is refunded.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

And for *some* indies, the sales at the alternate sites barely justify the time spent managing the multiple channels. Hence the fairly large number of Kindle exclusives at any given time.

Which, come to think of it, may be another unintended consequence of the new rules. Amazon may not only get new authors and titles, they may get more exclusives if the complexity outweighs the sales.

I don't know. Since I started editing/formatting and sometimes uploading for other authors, I can say that I'm stunned and surprised by how often some clients don't want to learn/bother with an upload process. Each retailer does vary and keeping track of which one pays what commissions and payouts and so on--it's not for the faint of heart (or memory). Sometimes the interface is very confusing so it can be hard to tell if you selected all the countries (it defaults as yes on one retailer and no on another). DRM? Not all authors even know what that means. It defaults to yes on some and no on others. Prices? There are different rules and recommendations on Kobo's site versus Amazon, but if you don't want to spend a lot of time reading said rules...

So something like this is a real headache. I'm more the "set it once and leave it alone" and a change like this makes me even more so. I generally release a new novel at 2.99 for a week to 10 days. Then I change the price to whatever the final price is going to be. Now that strategy is less attractive to me. Because it is one of the few sales I run, I will probably force myself to do it, but I might develop a new frown line or two.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I wanted Amazon to have a level playing field with other big companies like WH Smiths. It's ridiculous that there's no minimum turnover before requiring registering for the MOSS scheme

Yes it would have been more reasonable to use the same minimum sales per country as for Mail Order (at present 5 000 Euros or more).

[Ghitulescu]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

That answer gets you a failing grade (except that US business schools teach VAT so badly they might not notice).

It's registered businesses that can deduct VAT paid but must charge VAT to their customers (who may be other businesses). And some businesses like insurance companies can't do this - in VAT terminology they are "exempt".

And all the VAT on an export is refunded.

And you are failing the English class for not being able to read what I said.
If one company charges another company, the VAT is deducted (surely, it is charged before deducted), but the second company transfer everything to the end customer (or a third company, in which case the second step is repeated). In other words, the end customer gets the product for its price (altered by successive value increases ) plus VAT (which has been stepwise collected). VAT is fixed and depends on the country. In case you're thinking of the exact piece of coin, it's not, but that's not the issue. The mechanism of deduction is so implemented that one does not pay VAT on VAT.
A ironical but sad aspect of this problem is that the VAT was invented (by France) to tax businesses, yet it's exactly these the ones that escape this taxation and pass everything onto the private customer.

Concerning the world without companies, well, think the world before 1600 (although companies have existed also in the Roman Empire and probably before it in the Middle East, as this wasn't a Roman thing).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ghitulescu

Concerning the world without companies, well, think the world before 1600 (although companies have existed also in the Roman Empire and probably before it in the Middle East, as this wasn't a Roman thing).

Would you really want to live in the world as it was before 1600? I certainly wouldn't.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by Ghitulescu

Concerning the world without companies, well, think the world before 1600

Do you really think that the economic, business and social system worked more efficiently, fairly and equitably prior to 1600?

What aspects of that system made it so much better in your eyes?

/JB

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Do you really think that the economic, business and social system worked more efficiently, fairly and equitably prior to 1600?

What aspects of that system made it so much better in your eyes?

/JB

I read a book once that said they had magic and dragons back then. That would be cool...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Because in KDP it is up to the publisher to set the price consumers see. (On those occasions when Amazon sells KDP titles for a lower price--and they aren't price matching--the discount comes off their slice of the cake.) With the new rules, some publishers may want to keep the current list price or set a new EU-wide price and "eat" the tax hike while others may want to keep their take-home constant and let the consumer price vary, country to country.

Remember, before, Amazon had only one VAT rate to add so it made sense to set one price and do a straight currency conversion and add the tax afterwards. Not so simple, now.

But now they should give people the choice. Either specify price before VAT or specify price after VAT.

[Ghitulescu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Would you really want to live in the world as it was before 1600? I certainly wouldn't.

The advances after 1600 were not due to companies, nor thanks to them . But I think we deviate.

It all started from a change in the EU legislation, and a tax imposed on companies only (which, then as today, tried to be on 0 profit - VAT tried to correct this, and did not succeeded as the companies lobbied the lawmakers).

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by tompe

But now they should give people the choice. Either specify price before VAT or specify price after VAT.

Amazon.de will have at least four rates of VAT since in addition to German residents, German speakers from Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg can use it but it was designed to show only the one price, that in Germany.

Does Apple have iStores that can be used by people in more than one country ?

[murg]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Do you really think that the economic, business and social system worked more efficiently, fairly and equitably prior to 1600?

What aspects of that system made it so much better in your eyes?

/JB

Well ... the whole Amazon v Hachette dispute would have been resolved on the battlefield.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by murg

Well ... the whole Amazon v Hachette dispute would have been resolved on the battlefield.

Laser wielding robots and drones vs... what?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Laser wielding robots and drones vs... what?

Desperate interns commanded by ruthless arseholes.