Last month I was asked by an “Email Players” subscriber:
“When selling your products to customers in Europe, do you use an intermediary to collect the VAT (Value Added Tax)? If so, can you provide their contact details?”
Take this for what it is.
I admittedly know very little about it.
And what I do makes me not want anything more to do with it.
But, the way my printer described it recently, the EU has a system called the IOSS, where you can pay the fees for the end recipient and just collect it for them. Apparently (have not checked, and do not care enough to) you can even apply the IOSS number into your shopping cart so it will apply these fees when a customer buys a product so you are covered.
I don’t bother though.
Not going to be a tax collector for a foreign government.
Thus, I let the customer deal with it.
Admittedly, that has irritated certain EU customers.
And my indifference to this has caused some EU customers to quit Email Players.
Especially since some have been getting nailed with VAT taxes they weren’t before, and it’s getting to be more expensive to simply receive my books and newsletters due to factors completely out of my control, even if I did make a covenant with the EU and used their IOSS shtick.
Apparently my paying those customers’ shipping ain’t enough.
Thus when they get nailed with these fees and tell me about it?
I say (verbatim):
“I suggest canceling if the extra 80 cents per day or whatever it adds up to doesn’t fit your budget or if the info isn’t paying for itself enough to justify the investment.”
So far, nobody has bailed due to that answer…
If anything, it’s been a good way to separate the men from the boys in business.
Maybe I should thank the EU?
So that’s my take on all that.
If you want more info on my Email Players newsletter, go here:
Ben Settle
