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| Quote: George Osborne's latest budget could spell an end to 99p song downloads by closing a tax loophole that meant consumers were paying VAT at very low foreign rates on online purchases of books, music and apps. The chancellor will bring in new laws making sure that internet downloads are taxed in the country where they are purchased, meaning web firms such as Amazon and Apple will have to charge the UK's 20% rate of VAT. At the moment they are allowed to sell digital downloads through countries such as Luxembourg, where the tax rate is as low as 3%. In a little-noticed announcement, Osborne said he would used this year's finance bill to impose the new law from 1 January 2015. The budget document said: "As announced at budget 2013, the government will legislate to change the rules for the taxation of intra-EU business to consumer supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and e-services. From 1 January 2015 these services will be taxed in the member state in which the consumer is located, ensuring these are taxed fairly and helping to protect revenue." | |
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http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/m ... -downloads
It's a pity he hasn't got the balls to go after them when they're diverting money through Ireland for instance, isn't it? It adds up to a fcuksight more than a relatively paltry £300m.
Apart from anything else, recent articles suggest both music and ebook sales are flatlining, so this will hardly help. In both cases you can often buy the physical product for almost the same price. Especially good with Amazon even letting you rip DRM-free CDs and store songs 'in the cloud'.
Anyway, that's enough ranting from me, will this make you think twice when buying digitally? Do you think you'll purchase less? I wouldn't be surprised if the e-tailers somewhat absorb the costs - 69 and 99p are the norm because they're 'impulse buys', they might not wanna mess with that too much.