RISC OS Open Sales

Strangely MANUALLY emailing files is not covered by the Digital Downloads Regs. It is only AUTOMATIC downloads that are covered.

Do you only sell your eservices through a third party platform or marketplace? (For example not through your own website)?
If Yes, the changes don’t apply to you.

If a third party actually makes the sale as in the buyers contract is with them and they receive the money then pass it on after deducting their cut then yes. BUT many of third party platform or marketplace e.g. etsy.com (and this applies to three of the four platforms my wife uses) only provide a shop window, the contract with the buyer is with her and she is paid direct by the customer by paypal. The platform bills their fees at the end of the month.

As to registering in each EU country – what’s the threshold? If you don’t need to register then the whole issue of paying 93p or whatever is moot.

For digital downloads the threshold is 0.00 in ALL EU countries

Standard thresholds for business within each country vary a lot:
Standard thresholds

For intra EU non digital download sales the theshold is 35,000e or equivalent
List Here

BUT many of third party platform or marketplace e.g. etsy.com (and this applies to three of the four platforms my wife uses) only provide a shop window, the contract with the buyer is with her and she is paid direct by the customer by paypal.

To answer this, we would need to see the actual text of the new directive; because even if the contracts are with her, Etsy is a third party site. She is not selling on her “own” site. Whether or not this is permitted will depend upon the actual text, rather than HMRC’s interpretation…
[hmmm, perhaps they only looked at the likes of eBay and Amazon Marketplace when writing this directive?]

To answer this, we would need to see the actual text of the new directive; because even if the contracts are with her, Etsy is a third party site.

I doubt if the actual text would cover this – it’s more a case of HMRC et al trying to helpfully explain things as simply as possible, and not covering all the possibilities.

They do indeed mean through sites like Amazon¹, whereby there are in effect two sales: Amazon to the customer and, when Amazon pay you your bit, you to Amazon – so in scenarios like this, Amazon has the headache from the new system.

I’m not sure how you lump eBay in with Amazon, though. I haven’t used eBay in donkey’s years, so perhaps they’ve changed – but don’t they operate more like Etsy? (You use eBay to advertise your wares, and when someone buys it they buy it from you (eBay charges you a listing fee, and final valuation fees). Also, is it possible to use eBay for an entirely automated sale of digital goods?

¹ Or to be more RISC OS specific, PlingStore.

Strangely MANUALLY emailing files is not covered by the Digital Downloads Regs. It is only AUTOMATIC downloads that are covered.

For the moment. The plan is to expand the new scheme to all sales, not just digital stuff – so while looking at ways to intervene in the sales so that there is a manual step might seem to be a convenient loophole now, it almost certainly won’t be in future.

Just off the top of my head…

…doesn’t this have the potential to horribly backfire, with the rest of the entire world now being in a position to consider requiring sellers to pay the appropriate tax in the country of the purchaser? Not in the EU, everywhere?

…doesn’t this have the potential to horribly backfire, with the rest of the entire world now being in a position to consider requiring sellers to pay the appropriate tax in the country of the purchaser? Not in the EU, everywhere?

We might be getting hysterical here. The new rules cover digital sales: ie. stuff that doesn’t come into a country via a conventional courier service.

If you¹ buy physical things from a foreign country², you already have to pay HMRC (via your courier) the unpaid duty on the goods before you can receive them. Up to now, digital goods seem to have escaped this net.

¹ Well, someone in the UK.

² EU excepted for some taxes, like VAT.

…doesn’t this have the potential to horribly backfire, with the rest of the entire world now being in a position to consider requiring sellers to pay the appropriate tax in the country of the purchaser?

This sort of happens already for physical goods – digital goods and services are actually a bit of a loophole.

Specifically, when you purchase anything from outwith the EU, you are importing it – and, as such, you are expected to pay any import duty and VAT on the goods. There is a lower limit for any given item which, IIRC (long time since I bought any DVDs from overseas) here in the UK is £18 (or £27? if it’s being sent to you as a gift). Rates might vary in other countries – and even this one given how long since this was last relevant to me!

(If the seller were handling this, they’d add the relevant charges to the price when you purchase the goods, and hand the funds over to the relevant state tax body – so having the purchaser handle it is easier, and the net effect is the same.)