How about different rates for different goods / services? This looks like a gross oversimplification. Doing VAT correctly is quite hard - there is a reason why there are dedicated VAT specialists working in larger consulting firms.
Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
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Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#12This does not make the distinction between consumers and corporate (VAT registered) customers nor does it make a distinction between services and goods (and various classes of goods, to make things even more complicated). Which makes me suspect this is a very broken implementation and you should not rely on it for your business needs.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct, but you're not required to pay the local (Dutch) VAT, so the seller doesn't have to collect it. This tool shows the Dutch VAT rate (0.21) for all buyer countries, which is not correct in that case.
im not sure. i refuse to do business with anyone in the EU simply because Im not interested in negotiating tax rates with 27 different tax authorities. not worth all the bureaucracy.
That's what the 'MOSS' part of VATMOSS is all about: "Mini One Stop Shop", a way to take all your business across the various EU countries allowing you to specify which country you had how much turnover in and then paying this to a single account which will take care of disbursement. I used this system for as long as it has been active and it works but is still ridiculously labor intensive for small amounts.
The bigger problem is that these rules were made to target companies like spotify and amazon who are large enough to simply work around the rule, effectively penalizing SMBs without any upside.
Highly annoying.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
VAT is technically paid by the customer, you just collect them to make the process slightly less ridiculous. therefore, VAT is paid based on customer location. this does not mean that you dont have to pay VAT at all if you sell to germany. in that case, you ahve to pay german VAT. if youre smalltime enough, its likely that nobody will go after you, but thats what it is.
That is correct. Afaik, you do have to charge VAT to customers outside the Netherlands (but in the EU).
Yep. But how much to charge is dependent on what you charge for, where your customer is located and whether they are a business (with a registered VAT number in their own country) or a consumer.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#15The EU administration itself or the national tax authorities in the EU should have provided an official service like this to go with the VAT changes for digital sales from day one.
I appreciate someone else stepping up and doing it, though I'd want to see more information about the source(s) they were using for the data and how frequently they were checked before I'd hook a real business up to a third party service like this.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#16That won't work in Ireland. While 23% is the headline rate, it's not the only rate: https://www.taxworld.ie/vat/summary/vat-rates/
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#17The EU administration itself or the national tax authorities in the EU should have provided an official service like this to go with the VAT changes for digital sales from day one. I appreciate someone else stepping up and doing it, though I'd want to see more information about the source(s) they were using for the data and how frequently they were checked before I'd hook a real business up to a third party service l…
They did, it's called the VATMOSS portal: https://www.ros.ie/vatmoss-web/vatmoss.html
The problem is that it is a pain to use and too labor intensive to be practical.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're wrong. Just because you don't owe VAT to the Netherlands doesn't mean you don't owe it to another EU country. [edit] Maybe I misunderstood. In what situation do you think you don't have to pay Dutch VAT, and what's the source of your information?
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/... >Over het algemeen brengt u geen btw in rekening aan ondernemers uit andere EU-landen. Bij goederen past u dan het 0%-tarief toe en bij diensten wordt de btw naar uw klant verlegd. In general, you should not charge VAT to entrepreneurs from other EU-countries. For goods, the 0%-tariff applies. For services, the VAT is transferred to the client. (Which me…
This is about b2b. We're talking about selling to consumers. Big difference.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#19While this is a great way for you to collect internal business numbers from other companies, I don't quite see how the benefit for those companies is so large that it warrants sending internal information to you.
By the way, do you plan to provide statistical summaries of your findings? Such as: How many companies from country X works with what set of countries Y? How many invoices do they (approximately) file to which country?
EDIT: Fixed typo.
Re: Show HN: A REST API for Calculating VAT in the EU
#20This does not make the distinction between consumers and corporate (VAT registered) customers nor does it make a distinction between services and goods (and various classes of goods, to make things even more complicated). Which makes me suspect this is a very broken implementation and you should not rely on it for your business needs.
It is only for calculating tax when selling to consumers.