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Comment by luser | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, I have to disagree. I have run a small software consulting business in Dublin for nearly ten years. The one thing we get right in this country is our pro business climate. It is easy to set up a company, there is a lot of support and advice available. I think we do this well...

Two caveats though:

- You DO need to get a good accountant to get advice on international VAT charges as they are complex (I suggest bypassing them by using a company like FastSpring that manages them on your behalf).

- Small business owners should have the same social welfare security net as everyone else (I think this might be changing).

I agree with you on the inbred gombeens and cute hoors, but thankfully there seems to be less of them in the tech sector :)

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re: fastsrping

"You have the option to pay either 8.9% flat or 5.9% plus $.95 per transaction. "

Wowza, thats steep!

edit: Sorry but experience has been different here in west, in another lifetime I worked on an "innovation partnership" with EI, it was nothing more than a way to funnel state money to politically connected "friends", the business idea was crippled from day 1 but that didnt matter the objective was transfer money, which as as a taxpayer was sickening.

Sorry for being cynical but I have many years of experience in business here, and seen it all in my interactions with state bodies. Maybe in Dublin they manage to put on a better show or things changed in last few years.

> re: fastsrping

> "You have the option to pay either 8.9% flat or 5.9% plus $.95 per transaction. "

> Wowza, thats steep!

FastSpring customer here.

First, they handle lots of boring and complicated stuff for you, not just taxes. How much would it cost you to accept all major credit cards, PayPal, checks and (international) wire transfers, and provide customer service for all of those transaction types?

Second, if you sell the more expensive B2B stuff like we do, and/or sell lots of your stuff through them, you can ask for a custom rate.

I see, still thats quite a bit especially when need to hand over a large chunk on any sale from Irish/EU28 customers in tax!

Currently working with Elavon for credit card payments (cant disclose exact rates, but much cheaper than Stripe),

completely avoiding Paypal who can go and f&*k themselves,

and getting several of the larger customers to pay via SEPA bank transfer or bitcoin which have nearly no fees.

> I see, still thats quite a bit especially when need to hand over a large chunk on any sale from Irish/EU28 customers in tax!

I am not sure I understand what you are talking about. If we set the price at $1K, we get from FastSpring $1K minus their commission, whether the customer has paid the EU VAT or some sales tax on top of that $1K or not. And it is FastSpring that does EU VAT remittance.

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