[jcr]

I mean no offense, but here in the US, I never knew this directive existed, let alone how to comply with it. Will some group in the EU pay me to collect their taxes for them? If not, why should I bear the expense? And particularly so since I already have to bear the expense of my local tax laws. --Essentially, it seems this far reaching EU law exists to please some political purpose, like pretending to level a playing field, but as far as I know, it's mostly ignored or unknown outside of the EU (and possibly within the EU as well).

[jibjab]

I (European) didn't know about it either until recently :-).

It is strange though, because it seems to keep the EU, and national VAT registrations quite busy [1][2], while no one on the outside seems to be aware of it, nor is anyone enforcing it.

[1] http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPort... [2] http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/faqvies.do