Well I'm not sure I understand how it works. I bought LA scoring strings for $1248 via paypal from the uk. So I know I paid the same price as anyone in the US regardless of conversion rate. Had it been your system it would have been way out of reach. So how can they do it and guys like you and IK multimedia for instance have to have separate stores for US EU UK

Can I point out that I'm not trying to be argumentative, just wondering where the law starts and choice ends.

Anyway, best of luck with X3, hope it has the impact you guys deserve, we can all see how hard you have worked.

Bibs

SteveStrummerUK
And how come US customers don't pay any tax on their purchase, your tax laws are making me want to emigrate.
 

It is the United States of America, and for historical reasons a hodgepodge of often irrational and conflicting laws. Your VAT is a nationwide tax, our sales taxes are levied by states, counties and municipalities. So the store across the street may be collecting a different tax than the one you are shopping.
 
One thing all of the states are pretty much agreed on is that they should collect tax on purchases wherever they are made. Hence in addition to sales tax on items bought locally, most states require you to pay a use tax on items bought outside of their jurisdiction and brought into the state. The buyer is supposed to keep track of all the foreign items he buys and file a form with payment each year for what he owes. Collection of that tax is spotty, as not all citizens do as they are supposed to do. So states tend to investigate and enforce it at the level of say yacht sales, but not at the level of candy bars or software downloads. 
 
Because they have very good federal government lobbyists, online companies were able to exempt online sales from collection at the point of sale, and the states lose billions of dollars in revenue because of this.
 
A businessman acquaintance once looked into the tax requirement of his work travel, and found that in addition to the thirty odd state income tax forms he was legally required to file (in some cases being subject to tax on the same income in more than one state), he also was required to file property tax forms on the value of his laptop computer, prorated by the number of days he had stayed in a hotel, in dozens of jurisdictions for the city county and state where the hotel was located.
 
Still want to move here to get better tax laws?

the yearly vat / price thing.. you deal with other US companies, then you know they aren't "styling it out" .. presonus and studio one, izotope and a few more I deal with.
 
I will prefer to buy a boxed version of a UK reseller = that way the UK lot get something also.
 

wizard71
Can I point out that I'm not trying to be argumentative, just wondering where the law starts and choice ends

Well, obviously I can't answer for any company, and I wouldn't claim to be A VAT expert, but as I understand it, there's no choice involved. It all basically boils down to whether the vendor is VAT registerable, and complying with UK/EU law or not.
 
There are two aspects to any law. What the law says, and actually enforcing that law.
 
If a US company sells services (which is what downloaded software counts as) into the UK then if it sells more than the VAT registration threshold (currently £79,000/year I think) it legally has to register for VAT, charge VAT and pass the VAT on to HMRC. If a company is part of a group/corporation then it may be sufficient for the parent company of the group to be registered and handle all the VAT centrally.
 
The penalties for not doing so can include fines and seizure of goods or financial assets.
 
Who the penalty is exacted against depends on who counts as the seller. Which may not be the software company themselves, it may be their publisher or "parent" company in the case of a corporation.
 
Enforcement is a matter for HMRC. They certainly have gone after software/music/video retailers in the past.
 
Personally I think we're lucky that software is considered "electronic services" and not "goods". If it were "goods" then we'd have to pay duty as well.