freestompboxes.org

uncleboko wrote:I don't understand why you have to pay VAT on chips bought from the USA. Is it because they are imported to the EU? Unless you are a business, you will pay VAT on chips bought in the EU. The rules have changed recently and are very complicated.

It's not that complicated.

When importing goods from a non-EU country to a country within EU, you have to pay VAT, import taxes or whatever your country calls it
Those vary to some extent from country to country.

When trading between EU countries, no taxes are applied.


Back to the 7805 / 78L05 thing; Does one have any advantages over the other in terms of noise, stability, etc - apart from their differing sizes?

grrrunge wrote:

uncleboko wrote:I don't understand why you have to pay VAT on chips bought from the USA. Is it because they are imported to the EU? Unless you are a business, you will pay VAT on chips bought in the EU. The rules have changed recently and are very complicated.

It's not that complicated.

When importing goods from a non-EU country to a country within EU, you have to pay VAT, import taxes or whatever your country calls it
Those vary to some extent from country to country.

When trading between EU countries, no taxes are applied.

Actually it's not quite so simple as that. I suggest to call to HMRC VAT helpline!!

Without beiing an export in import duties I never ever heard of a way to avoid import taxes whan bringing stuff into the EU from outside the EU. That is, envelope sized airmail usually slips through. Packages usually do not. In some cases the transport company will fullfill the role of the customs doing the declarations in which case there's a 100% guarantee your shipment will not slip through. (I was rotten pissed placing an order at digikey.be (belgium), paying in euro's and getting 25% additional customs charges to pay as the shipment was made from the US.)

That aside.
These customs charges/import taxes are a way to protect your own local economy. That's more than fine.
- What I cannot stand is seeing far lower prices for a product in the US than over here in the EU for a product that is made in and by a company in the Orient.
- What I cannot stand either is paying these charges for a product that is not available in the EU other than by personal inport. No market is protected in that case since no-one is a victim of this import.
- What I cannot stand is paying these charges over the sum of the value of the goods plus the shipping charges. That means that a lazy seller (UPS is nice and easy and the buyer pays) make the recieving end pay ultradoublemore.