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Comment by yarcob | Hacker News Reader

> any US company can implement a more stringent data policy beyond the scope of legal remit within the country of operations

Theoretically, yes, you are right. But some companies are just going to say, oh, you are based in the US, let's look for a different vendor.

It's not even necessarily about the GDPR. For example, US companies tend to send really shitty invoices. There's barely any info on the invoice, some don't even include the full legal name and address of the invoicer. That really sucks when the tax authorities audit you and want proof for where all your money went.

If I buy services from the EU, I can assume that they comply with the GDPR, and I know that I'll get a proper invoice with VAT, and I won't have trouble with the tax authorities.

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> If I buy services from the EU, I can assume that they comply with the GDPR, and I know that I'll get a proper invoice with VAT, and I won't have trouble with the tax authorities.

VAT and invoices are part of GDPR? Financial regulations yes - sure, of which the UK is pretty darn good upon.

But if a company invoices you with bad invoices then you can just refuse them and ask the correct and resubmit - even in the USA. As you say, you need them done right for tax reasons and believe me, countries and tax laws are tight, so to ask a company to redo it with the missing information is hardly going to be an issue - more so if they want paying.

The whole aspect of assurance of compliance you make though - very valid point. Just shame such things like GDPR need to be driven by countries and not some global standard that could be audited and approved that is not tied or limited by any country.

So if there was say some International standard with an ISO number outlining such standards, companies could adopt that and get certified compliant and it gets driven that way. As with many standards, adoption by insurance/reinsurance companies goes a long way indeed.

> VAT and invoices are part of GDPR?

No they are not. VAT and invoices is just something else that's also easier with EU vendors.

> But if a company invoices you with bad invoices then you can just refuse them and ask the correct and resubmit - even in the USA

That only works well if you hire an individual contractor or a very small company who depends on your payment.

SaaS companies don't give a fuck if you are happy with their invoice. High profile example: Github won't even tell you if the invoice is with VAT or not -- it just says "price includes VAT if applicable" on their invoice. Support won't tell you what it means. How is my accountant supposed to book that? Fortunately my Github bill isn't big, so I probably won't get in trouble over incorrectly declared VAT for the Github invoice.

If there's a EU vendor, it's always going to be my first pick, because I just don't want to waste time accounting for funny US invoices.

Thank you, I grew up in the UK so the whole US invoices quirks and issues you mention are literal new to me and appreciate the perspective and experience. I do know that the Inland Revenue in the UK and TAX laws have always mandated VAT numbers have to be upon the invoice and other such stipulations. So do wonder how they handle UK invoicing with regards to VAT, but not had any dealing with them.

Did deal with few US companies in the 90's, Sprint and telco's and never an issue there, but then different times and corporate structure with those.

That said EU countries still vary and https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vat-invoicing-rules_en kinda shows how not having the VAT number can still be valid and legal as well.

Yet you still get country nuances within EU members.

In the UK, VAT invoices is kinda the rule of registered for VAT and the rules https://www.gov.uk/guidance/record-keeping-for-vat-notice-70...

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