As a company based in EU, we would like to buy a copy of X5 but can't, as online store insists on adding VAT. We have own VAT id and it is legaly required to buy things without VAT and add our countries own VAT to the price.
Any decent online store in EU has an option to buy things without VAT when you supply VAT id, except Corel.
We simply do not want to buy from lousy local distributer as they add nothing but 1-200 € to the price! Corel please fix this!
Agree!!
Ok what is VAT?
VAT = Value Added Tax. It is a progressive tax. i.e.: a farmer grows corn. He sells the corn to a distributer, there is an added VAT to the whole sale of the corn. The distributor now sells the corn to a retailer, for the price wholesaler paid, plus the paid VAT, plus his markup, and plus a (now) new VAT. The retailer, in turn, when s/he sells the corn to a consumer, has to charge another VAT on top of all the rest that has been paid.
Or, in other words, a VAT is an aggressive sales tax, applied at each and every stage of sale from source to end user.
Yes it works so, that VAT you payed on the buying side gets deducted from the VAT you would have to pay on a selling side, so in effect you pay tax just on your added value (or even get some back if your company sold less that it bought) .
On international level items are sold without tax and you have to pay your own countries tax as a buyer. But all this is valid only for companies that have their own VAT ID's. Physical persons pay VAT on purchase, so anyone selling goods internationally must have 2 options, depending on the status of buyer - Corel fails here and has only one option that is suitable for physical persons.
This is not something exotic or hard to implement - this is quite a normal practice in EU, fairly easy to implement as only VAT ID check must be performed and that can be done online. Any decent EU seller has this (inlcuding Amazon, Google etc.).
Regarding purchase from USA or Canada - as soon as we enter our address, VAT is automatically applied. I think this is even illegal (as in that case seller is Corel USA) and Corel could be fined for that