[pja]

The point of the changes is to prevent large non-EU companies from going "VAT-shopping": like a certain well known advertising company claiming to sell all their services from a low VAT country when in fact all the business dealings are done in a tower block in the centre of London.

Now they have to charge whatever VAT rate each country within the EU thinks is appropriate for their citizens & there's no "race to the bottom" effect where Google, Apple, Amazon et al try to play different countries off against each other to get the lowest possible VAT rate.

The next stage is going to be tax changes to try and eliminate the profit shifting that all the non-EU companies do by setting up subsidiaries in different EU countries and "licensing" their IP to them at prices that just happen to match the profits made in that country.

Unfortunately, small online businesses are collateral damage in this particular fight.

[tormeh]

This. It was about time they got started.

[oh_sigh]

Does placing advertising on web property count as a digital good?

[jkulmala]

Yes, as said, they have pretty much covered everything.

You can find some more detailed information here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-and-custo...