Changes in my Ravelry Store from Jan 1st 2015!
The European Union EU strikes! Because some big businesses found ways to “save” tax, there is a new tax legislation for all sellers of electronic media that live in the EU. Knitting patterns are electronic media as well!
- For every sold pattern I now have to pay the VAT of the country where the seller lives. This means 28 different VATs between 17 and 28 percent!
- Electronic media are no longer put on a level with books with reduced VAT as well, so the maximal VAT is assessed now.
- For every single pattern you have to make a documentation to which country it was sold.
- The small businesses exceptional regulation is not applied to patterns sold to foreign countries – I have to pay the foreign VAT from the 1st pattern!
This means for me that I will earn about 25% less for each sold pattern!
The normal selling fees for a pattern make about 25% of the price (Paypal, Ravelry) – now I have to pay VAT as well, the mean level is 25% – and for free a get a real lot of bureaucratic work!
Because I am one of those “money-grubbing” sellers who want to earn money with their work (yes, someone already insulted me as greedy!) I must change prices from Jan 1st 2015 on. The price shown in my Ravelry store is the net price, the respective VAT will be added to it according to the country to which the pattern is sold.
On VAT I do not earn a penny, it is a tax that I am forced to encash for the finance authority!
A pattern for 5 Euro will cost then:
in Germany 5,00 + 19% = 5.75
in Denmark 5,00 + 25% = 6.25
in Great Britain 5,00 + 20% = 6.00
in Austria 5,00 + 20% = 6.00
Ravelry offers an automatic application of this solution to the VAT problem – I hope it really will work!
For those who pay by money transfer I will have to make a calculation for every single pattern …