Ebook prices look set to rise (UK)

[MickiTee]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This new law is an EU-wide VAT directive, so it should be applied in all 26 (?) EU countries.

Do you know if the current rule which allows countries to lower VAT rates on ebooks or zero rate them at their discretion is being removed?

[HarryT]

I'm afraid I don't know. Any else know?

[rwillmer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid I don't know. Any else know?

My understanding that is that each EU country will continue to be able to set their own tax rate for B2C electronic services (aka ebooks).

And in fact, that this lack of harmonisation is the direct cause for the introduction of this new bureaucratic nightmare.

So now a selfpub author or publisher selling directly within the EU will have to know:

a) which country in the EU their customer is purchasing from;
b) what the right VAT level is for that country to charge them at the point of sale;

and then

c) at the end of each VAT quarter, submit a different VAT report to each EU member state to pay the right amount of tax in the right currency.

I'm involved in a project where this is a major factor at the moment, so keep throwing questions at the accountants concerned along the lines of "so. this law that is coming into effect in 8 months time... do we need to do THIS or do THAT?" and the answer keeps coming back "don't know. the EU hasn't decided yet"

I wrote a blogpost about this last September...

http://blog.luzme.com/2013/09/sell-e...rope-vat-2015/

Nothing much has changed since...

Rachel

P.S. Common Market, what "Common Market" ? Utter madness...

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by MickiTee

Do you know if the current rule which allows countries to lower VAT rates on ebooks or zero rate them at their discretion is being removed?

I don't think there is any such rule. The EU Commission was taking action against Lux and Fr for doing just that and in general the policy was against special rates unless grandfathered or within existing guidelines.

[Little.Egret]

[QUOTE=rwillmer;2802799]My understanding that is that each EU country will continue to be able to set their own tax rate for B2C electronic services (aka ebooks).

So now a selfpub author or publisher selling directly within the EU will have to know:

a) which country in the EU their customer is purchasing from;
b) what the right VAT level is for that country to charge them at the point of sale;

and then

c) at the end of each VAT quarter, submit a different VAT report to each EU member state to pay the right amount of tax in the right currency.
===

If you were selling physical goods by mail order you already have to do just that just as Amazon has to (unless your sales to a EU state are below the threshold - ~£98,000 for the UK).

Of course if you sell via Amazon they probably do all the work for you.

[elcreative]

But, as far as physical books are concerned, they have a Zero VAT rate in the UK and, ASFAIK, the rest of the EU...

[mr ploppy]

Would this affect Smashwords, who sell worldwide from the same site?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by elcreative

But, as far as physical books are concerned, they have a Zero VAT rate in the UK and, ASFAIK, the rest of the EU...

Physical books in the rest of the EU are at a variety of VAT rates, but all 3% or more. The UK is the only place with 0% VAT on books.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by rwillmer

My understanding that is that each EU country will continue to be able to set their own tax rate for B2C electronic services (aka ebooks).

And in fact, that this lack of harmonisation is the direct cause for the introduction of this new bureaucratic nightmare.

So now a selfpub author or publisher selling directly within the EU will have to know:

a) which country in the EU their customer is purchasing from;
b) what the right VAT level is for that country to charge them at the point of sale;

and then

c) at the end of each VAT quarter, submit a different VAT report to each EU member state to pay the right amount of tax in the right currency.

I'm involved in a project where this is a major factor at the moment, so keep throwing questions at the accountants concerned along the lines of "so. this law that is coming into effect in 8 months time... do we need to do THIS or do THAT?" and the answer keeps coming back "don't know. the EU hasn't decided yet"

I wrote a blogpost about this last September...

http://blog.luzme.com/2013/09/sell-e...rope-vat-2015/

Nothing much has changed since...

Rachel

P.S. Common Market, what "Common Market" ? Utter madness...

Only if you are VAT registered in the country you are selling to (and you only need to be registered if you are above the income threshold). Frankly if you are earning £70k+ (Varies between EU countries) from one country then it shouldn't be too much of a hardship to make the relevant payment, if you are earning this amount from so many countries that you can't keep track then hire an accountant, you can definately afford it at this point.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Only if you are VAT registered in the country you are selling to (and you only need to be registered if you are above the income threshold). Frankly if you are earning £70k+ (Varies between EU countries) from one country then it shouldn't be too much of a hardship to make the relevant payment, if you are earning this amount from so many countries that you can't keep track then hire an accountant, you can definately afford it at this point.

Yep. Probably not something that's going to affect many authors, and probably not even many publishers.

[samy2]

I love India