RE: UKNM: VAT and trading locations - RE: UKNM Digest V1 #115

[Leslie Bunder]

Well, just had my latest CDnow order arrive and it was shipped to the UK

and there was a sticker on it with a UK postage mark on it! (thankfully

no VAT on the order!)


So it was delivered within the UK by the royal mail.


Leslie

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Leslie Bunder, technology writer

Teletext on the Web

e-mail: LBunder@teletext.co.uk

tel: 0171 386 3667 (UK)  +44 171 386 3667 (outside UK)

mobile: 07010 701967 (UK) +44 7010 701967 (outside UK)

web: www.teletext.co.uk

post: 101 Farm Lane, Fulham, London SW6 1QJ, UK

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> -----Original Message-----

> From:	Steve Johnston/IMRG [SMTP:steve@imrg.org]

> Sent:	17 December 1998 09:50

> To:	uk-netmarketing@chinwag.com

> Subject:	UKNM: VAT and trading locations - RE: UKNM Digest V1

> #115

> 

> Craig Pickup wrote:

> 

> >This may also apply to the actual e-sales as the point of sale is the

> location

> >of the server not the customer. Therefore UK law relating to sales

> and VAT  do

> >not apply if the server is located in the US.

> 

> The point of sale is actually the desktop of the customer. If a UK

> company 

> is selling to a UK customer, it has to charge VAT (If the product is 

> vatable). Period. The argument that the server was in a non-vatable

> country 

> will not stand up to even the slightest examination. The difficulties,

> 

> however, arise when companies trade with consumers internationally.

> 

> Presently there is no formal agreement, between anyone, about whose

> VAT 

> should apply, there are a number of arguments about country of origin

> and 

> country of consumption, but common sense and market example is likely

> to 

> prevail. 

> 

> Look at CDnow, previously they left the problem with the consumer, so

> on 

> occasion, having bought your super-cheap VAT-free CD from the US a

> nasty 

> surprise would arrive in the shape of a DHL bill for VAT on behalf of

> UK 

> Customs & Excise and a small(ish) handling charge for DHL's trouble.

> This 

> didn't happen too often, and the volumes were such that it wasn't

> causing 

> any meaningful customer problems. 

> 

> You go to CDnow now and buy from their European centre, you will get

> UK VAT 

> added to your bill prior to shipping. So you are buying from a US firm

> with 


> a base in Holland and yet are paying UK VAT. 

> 

> The answer lies in the customer experience and scaleable models. The 

> tin-pot past had little of the first and none of the second. 

> 

> Steve Johnston

> Director of Development 

> The IMRG

> 

> www.imrg.org

> 07000 46 46 74


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