New EU Legislation on VAT

Although it seems to have largely gone unnoticed, the European Union introduced new Value Added Tax (VAT) laws on 1st January this year.

As a consequence of this legislation, companies selling electronic goods or services to customers within the EU are now legally required to record the country of residence of their customers, which – according to some – spells bad news for bitcoin.

The new legislation was put in place to make sure that VAT is actually paid in countries where the products in question are consumed, as is the purpose of these kinds of taxes.

More specifically, the new VAT laws are supposed to prevent a certain form of tax evasion, where – mostly – large corporations open up an office in a VAT-friendly country in order to sell their products throughout all of the EU, while paying as little tax as possible…. CONTINUE