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by mingabunga 469 days ago
Exactly! Nothing if you don't ship physical goods. I've been doing this for 24 years and only collecting sales tax for users in my home country. All other countries I just say on my invoice that any sales tax is included in the price. What are the going to do about me not charging sales tax in their country and remitting it? Come and get it?
1 comments
senordevnyc 469 days ago
I mean, I do understand if you’re big enough to be a target, but seriously, how is Germany or Taiwan or Argentina or wherever the fuck else going to 1) even know that I (a little US-based SaaS app doing under 8 figures in revenue) exist, 2) know that their citizens are paying me, 3) know how much, and 4) be able to do absolutely anything about it?

I’m genuinely asking.

For the pearl-clutchers here, I don’t do anything for GDPR for the same reason. Pass whatever laws you want in your county. Not my problem.

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omnimus 468 days ago
Are some of your customers buying the product as their business? Because if they put it in their expenses the record is there. If then for some reason somebody starts to dig you would be liable for all those taxes going back.

Sorry but these are laws those customers countries set and its not just EU. Every other country is now considering similar system because digital products is huge outflow of unpayed taxes.

Btw “not your problem” it would be if you were not doing bussiness with those countries. Nobody stops you to not sell to EU. Imagine you were buying physical product from EU. Would you also expect not paying taxes on it just because they are from abroad?

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senordevnyc 468 days ago
It’s not my problem because I don’t live in those countries, and their citizens are coming to me and purchasing something. It’s analogous to a citizen from Germany coming into my restaurant in Chicago, and then the German government declaring that I owe them taxes. Ridiculous. I’m not going to incur any extra work or cost just because some random other country decides that they deserve a cut.

Ultimately though, it’s not my problem because there’s no enforcement mechanism whatsoever, so I just ignore it. The bureaucracy on the other side of the world can stomp their feet all they want, but unless they have a way to make me pay it, I won’t.

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mixmastamyk 468 days ago
Not likely I guess, but not unheard of to nab you while traveling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41341353
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senordevnyc 468 days ago
Come on, that has literally nothing to do with a relatively tiny software company failing to collect VAT at another country's whims.
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mixmastamyk 468 days ago
It has everything to do with breaking laws conspicuously enough to get noticed. I’m sure the guy providing encrypted messaging thought he was doing nothing wrong, and I’d tend to agree with him.

Let’s not pretend govts have no tools. A friend once had their bank account seized by the state of California due to a moderate balance after six months.

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