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Why Spaniards Can No Longer Buy From Non-EU Countries.

Phil said:
My wife had a mild stroke in the spring. Luckily no damage but a good warning. She spent 9 days in the hospital....not because she was critical but so she could be assessed by god and everyone. We have supplemental insurance which is 150 a month for both of us. Her hospital bill was zero.

yes, the terrible thing about extremely expensive insurance in a for profit system is that the insurance is 16 to 18k and that is BEFORE you use it. If you actually use it pray you dont get hit with thousands of dollars in co pays and things not covered.

When it comes down to it taxes and social fees in europe are less invasive than the costs in the states since half of every dollar goes to the military. Look at the pie charts of European countries...he big slice of the pie goes back to the public. In the US its just enough pie to starve.
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So sorry to hear this news about your wife Phil but glad that in France you have quality healthcare that doesn't require you to mortgage your home or do a go-fund me page to pay for it without becoming homeless like in the United Snakes of Avarice.
 
Jazz Is All said:
OMG, that's 50% tax for something that cost less than 60 euros. In Spain that would barely get taxed at all. Was this since Brexit was in action or before? Now that it is official who knows what awaits us in that area in either direction. I know for one thing that with the UK now out of the EU, it is now a country I can no longer buy anything expensive from because I will be taxed the same as if it were the USA, Australia, or Timbuktu, i.e. 26% on the product plus 21% on the shipping + 30 euros to get it out of customs in Madrid so can continue on its way to me in Barcelona. o_O &%&$%?¿!%&
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The charges for personal import from the USA have not changed. It was over £250 for the Warmoth guitar parts! Sometimes you get lucky and only pay the handling charges and escape Import Duty and VAT.

Most of that £26 is handling charges. It breaks down as about £10 VAT, £2 import duty and the rest handling charges.

To import anything expensive from the UK to Spain - get the ferry from Santander or Bilbao! On the way back you might get searched and be charged import duty, but how do they know you didn't take that sax out of Spain with you? The final cost will be about the same but you get a holiday instead of paying taxes! (if they ever let us travel again...)
 
What I don't understand is the EU digital tax they are trying to implement. Besides them charging crazy fees and taxes to their citizens. They want everyone else around the world to tax the EU people more when they buy digital goods and then send the money to the EU. I don't even understand how they have the authority to do that. I am not an EU citizen and my website server is not in the EU. How do they figure we are under any obligation to collect taxes for the EU. That just doesn't make sense to me.......
 
Neffmusic said:
How do they figure we are under any obligation to collect taxes for the EU
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It's an OECD initiativ, not (just) EU.

www.oecd.org

International community agrees on a road map for resolving the tax challenges arising from digitalisation of the economy - OECD

The international community has agreed on a road map for resolving the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and committed to continue working toward a consensus-based long-term solution by the end of 2020, the OECD announced today.
www.oecd.org www.oecd.org
 
Oh my...we would never want billion dollar multinational corps to actually pay their fair share. I enjoy carrying their weight on my tax bill. I consider it my civic duty to see to it that they make obscene profits for themselves and the 1 percenters.

Steve, basically in the absence of a digital tax Amazon has a storefront in these countries and essentially does not pay the taxes of a physical entity. Im not saying they pay nothing but there is an unfair advantage over real stores in the tax realm. They should be paying tax. Are you suggesting a digital storefront is not a store? They are not trying to tax US sales. Thisnis an attempt to stop Pretending that physical borders mean something in a non physical landscape. They owe the tax.
 
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nigeld said:
This sounds like an attempt to get multinationals like Amazon to pay tax.
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It was originally. All it did was cause extra work or accounting cost for small businesses, people selling knitting patterns etc. However in the UK they changed it so that businesses under the VAT threshold did not need to.
 
Phil said:
....... Thisnis an attempt to stop Pretending that physical borders mean something in a non physical landscape. They owe the tax.
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But the point (argued by their top lawyers) is that they do not owe more tax than they currently pay, according to the outdated ways in which tax laws are currently written. That allows them a huge (but currently legal) advantage over bricks and mortar organisations and means that they only contribute a tiny amount to the infrastructure, education and other services in the countries where they operate.

Time to bring tax laws up to date across the globe - that might take a long while !

Rhys
 
Yes, we are decades behind in managing the digital world in every fashion. People still treat it as something physical...that simply does not work. Its also a reason why the are the wealthiest businesses in the world.

There are serious social and existential implications when the wealthiest entities have no actual product. Its a shift we are not prepared for.
 
Lots of good points. Something had to give - and the issue of how not to stuff the small guy is a tough one, a question of ballance, and will depend on individual counties.
Norway, which a particularly protectionist (which is why it's EEA and not EU), levied an extra charge for online goods without tax not paid by the merchant. Mostly, I reckon, to give a boost to local online merchants; but, I guess, the winners will be the big guys with full fat platforms like g4m etc...
 
As rhysonsax says lawyers can show they have paid what they legally owe so the law needs to be changed whereas everyone who gets paid cash in hand no matter how small or large is not paying what they owe and that again costs the economy millions.
 
DaveT said:
The charges for personal import from the USA have not changed. It was over £250 for the Warmoth guitar parts! Sometimes you get lucky and only pay the handling charges and escape Import Duty and VAT.

Most of that £26 is handling charges. It breaks down as about £10 VAT, £2 import duty and the rest handling charges.

To import anything expensive from the UK to Spain - get the ferry from Santander or Bilbao! On the way back you might get searched and be charged import duty, but how do they know you didn't take that sax out of Spain with you? The final cost will be about the same but you get a holiday instead of paying taxes! (if they ever let us travel again...)
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Well, in reality the only place where saxes are cheaper for me across the board is the USA. The fact that the pound has more value than the Euro was a deterrent from buying from the UK already but now that I'll have to pay the same highway ripoff as I do for stuff from the USA makes it even worse. The advantage the USA has is that all vintage American horns are the cheapest there. Try looking for something ordinary there, like a Martin Indiana, on any of the Euro eBay sites and tell me that the €1200 prices they go for have anything to do with their market value in Saxland USA. An Indiana in great shape is maybe at the outside worth 800 Dollars (not euros which are $1.22 @ more) unless an unplayed closet case. Worse yet there are right now at least 3 Marin Imperial altos for sale at prices that a Comm III should fetch. Those are student horns and go for $500 max in the USA and in the NL, France, Germany and Spain they are selling for 2.5 times their true value.

This is why I always tried to buy a sax when I was in the States in the summer at US prices and then bring it back here. I did that with several because anyone coming from the US to Spain generally can waltz right through Customs unscathed. They have bigger fish to look out for from countries where really serious contraband comes from and saxes are not one of those. Plus by then it is your horn, and you can play it to show them were push to come to shove. However, in 30 years of reentering the US I have never had anything searched except one time when they wanted to know what the odd shaped box that had our son's car seat in it was.

So until the Virus is vanquished, and I can travel to the US again, I doubt I'll be able to get a vintage American sax anywhere else unless I accept overpaying for it, or from the USA and pay the overage to Spanish customs instead. I suppose the latter is preferable since the money does fund the social programs and health system that the government provide basically free here and which is the best aspect of life for an old git like me. Were it not for that I wouldn't be writing this because I would already have died years ago in the USA a victim of the lousy health insurance and overpriced medical system I had there.
 
mizmar said:
Norway, which a particularly protectionist (which is why it's EEA and not EU), levied an extra charge for online goods without tax not paid by the merchant. Mostly, I reckon, to give a boost to local online merchants; but, I guess, the winners will be the big guys with full fat platforms like g4m etc...
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And, yet, the UK appears to make the Norwegian solution look rational!
www.theneweuropean.co.uk

EU businesses stop UK deliveries due to 'new Brexit measures'

Specialist online retailers in several EU countries have said they will no longer deliver to good to UK customers because of tax...
www.theneweuropean.co.uk www.theneweuropean.co.uk
 

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