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Comment by hirundo | Hacker News Reader

"The company said that it had taken the decision due to the UK government telling overseas firms that they must apply and collect British taxes when selling to customers here, with the point at which VAT is collected, for example, moved from the point of importation to the point of sale."

It would be difficult for London policy makers to come up with trade rules that are as damaging and onerous as the ones from Brussels. But I have every confidence that they are up to the task.

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> come up with trade rules that are as damaging and onerous as the ones from Brussels

Simply not true.

EU has made trading free and effortless between the 27 member states for the first time in history. And for companies shipping to the EU it is only a one time regulatory hit and then you benefit from a single, coherent market.

Also the world needs a trading bloc that actually believes in climate change, worker rights, consumer rights, privacy etc.

Shame it didn't just stay a trading bloc. This expansion of power is really unpopular and enabled Brexit in the first place.

It's also probably a proxy for immigration, mostly of the illegal variety, but also legal within the Schengen area. People don't take too kindly to having a supernational body tell them who is allowed to enter their country, stay for long periods of time, and their very loose definition of refugee. I know that some nations are politically very much in alignment with the EU's immigration push (Germany is obvious) but clearly the UK isn't. The EU should not have touched this issue.

The single area interest rate also creates a lot of economic tension that perhaps the average joe can't articulate, but he certainly is affected by it.

The EU was never, ever, just a trading bloc.

https://davidallengreen.com/2021/01/the-real-origin-of-the-e...

This is one big surveillance super state. Companies e.g. have to submit all their invoices, bank accounts to gov in real time. Some member states even require separate bank accounts to store VAT. Bureaucracy is just gargantuan. If you think it is easy then likely you are doing something wrong.

Uh, source? I’m doing business in EU and haven’t heard of this?

Some Eastern EU states do it.

Do you have the source?

Bit of a stretch to claim this is true for all of Europe if a few Eastern European countries purportedly do this, isn’t it? Doing business across the EU borders is mostly easy, painless, and free.

Humbug. Yes, in Estonia, all invoices above EUR 1000 have to be declared. Bank accounts etc. do not have to be submitted and there is no real-time access. The reason for the law is VAT fraud that basically dropped after its introduction. No averse effects have been reported.

The EU intends to introduce a similar system later this year.

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/modernisi...

Also as I understand it, Norway already has as of April 2020 (VOEC), so not just EU.

Chances are that Norway did it because of the EU as a member of EFTA.

Australia has had this system in place for over a year now.

https://www.ato.gov.au/business/international-tax-for-busine...

Seems like a simplification (one which other countries have already implemented too).

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