Tuesday, October 13, 2015

More International Taxes on Software Sales

The rules were well-intentioned — it was not right that Apple, Google and Amazon could set up shop in Luxembourg, thus gaming the tax system and disadvantaging EU competitors. However, the implementation was cack-handed — particularly the absence of a minimum threshold, which means that the compliance burden for indies is disproportionate (a threshold may now be implemented, but could take years).

This is old news, I hear you say, and already covered by TechCrunch, among others. And you would be right, as the EU rules have now been in place since January 1st and businesses will be making their third VAT MOSS return on October 20.

However, the “successful” roll-out of VAT MOSS has led other countries to formulate plans along the same lines as the EU scheme.

I switched my payment processor from PayPal to FastSpring, chiefly so I wouldn’t have to deal with the tax compliance details. The main alternative seems to be to use an à la carte service such as Taxamo that can plug into a “dumb” payment processor like Stripe.

Update (2015-10-13): Felix Schwarz:

I just stumbled over Avangate. They seem to offer lower fees & more flexibility than Fastspring.

Another option, which I also use, is eSellerate, although I’m not sure of its current status because the sign-up page seems to be gone, replaced by MyCommerce.

Christian Owens: