Beatport tax?

[Thomas D and Jack Thomas]

Here's the deal...in the U.S., taxes are only required for purchases over the net when the customer resides in the same state where the company runs an operational site. In the UK and EU, things are changing. Businesses are now required to charge VAT for these areas regardless of boundaries. Beatport is one of the biggest MP3 sites on the internet, so it would be stupid for them not to follow the laws in order to remain operational. Trust me, I am sure Beatport does not want to charge the VAT. It requires them to do more work and they don't even get a cut of that money. You should also take into consideration that you must pay for VAT when you buy a record. If you pay 10e for a record at Hard Wax, part of that 10e includes the VAT costs. It may seem conveinent to not worry about or see the VAT charge, but reality is you're paying VAT whether you like it or not. Remember the infamous quote, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes."

Also in regard to Beatport, I think you guys complain too much. Sure the prices are a tad high and there is a ton of clutter, but it's not as bad as some of you make it out to be. At least the artist is guaranteed to get their share of the money you pay in. This isn't always the case with distribution companies.

[JackNine]

If you want all the tracks off a release yes, but how often is that happening?
(not that I want to defend the higher and higher prices and Beatport)

Totally agree with ya. The last time I bought an entire EP, let alone album, sheesh... who knows when that was.

[camus]

Ok , there is a debate in a french electro forum :

http://www.joachimgarraud.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=23997

As a beatport artist said , it has to do with EMI sueing (suing? ) BEATPORT for not paying something called in France "Droit De Reproduction Mecaniques" in english Mechanical Reproduction Rights . So it seems it has nothing to do with VAT , by he way in france it is 19,6% and not 13% like i calculated on Beatport , so it is not the right amount. I know it's written VAT on Beatport , the rate make no sense. Anyway the thing is we may be paying the fine resulting of the trial of Beatport against EMI. I don't want to spread a rumor cause i haven't got any sources ,but why Beatport did not communicate about it prior to the implementation of the new price?.The first thing they've had to do is to send a mail to all there client ( they did it for Deadmau5 tour lol ) telling what the story is all about.

[patrick bateman]

Here's the deal...in the U.S., taxes are only required for purchases over the net when the customer resides in the same state where the company runs an operational site. In the UK and EU, things are changing. Businesses are now required to charge VAT for these areas regardless of boundaries. Beatport is one of the biggest MP3 sites on the internet, so it would be stupid for them not to follow the laws in order to remain operational. Trust me, I am sure Beatport does not want to charge the VAT. It requires them to do more work and they don't even get a cut of that money. You should also take into consideration that you must pay for VAT when you buy a record. If you pay 10e for a record at Hard Wax, part of that 10e includes the VAT costs. It may seem conveinent to not worry about or see the VAT charge, but reality is you're paying VAT whether you like it or not. Remember the infamous quote, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes."

Also in regard to Beatport, I think you guys complain too much. Sure the prices are a tad high and there is a ton of clutter, but it's not as bad as some of you make it out to be. At least the artist is guaranteed to get their share of the money you pay in. This isn't always the case with distribution companies.

Totally agree with you on this one.

[patrick bateman]

Ok , there is a debate in a french electro forum :

http://www.joachimgarraud.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=23997

As a beatport artist said , it has to do with EMI sueing (suing? ) BEATPORT for not paying something called in France "Droit De Reproduction Mecaniques" in english Mechanical Reproduction Rights . So it seems it has nothing to do with VAT , by he way in france it is 19,6% and not 13% like i calculated on Beatport , so it is not the right amount. I know it's written VAT on Beatport , the rate make no sense. Anyway the thing is we may be paying the fine resulting of the trial of Beatport against EMI. I don't want to spread a rumor cause i haven't got any sources ,but why Beatport did not communicate about it prior to the implementation of the new price?.The first thing they've had to do is to send a mail to all there client ( they did it for Deadmau5 tour lol ) telling what the story is all about.

no, this is not true.
It IS VAT this thing now.

What you are talking about is that Beatport as an American company didn't pay mechanical royalties, but they have actually just started to do that with deals with various companies, so this will be implemented from this quarter I think it is, and it's not this VAT that appears now (which is 15%, not 13%).

[camus]

well it is not the french VAT which is 19.6 and not 15 ou 13% you don't pay american VAT in France (if it is american VAT ) , it is non sense. Why 13 , 15 why not 20 ? i don't think what you say is right.

[patrick bateman]

well it is not the french VAT which is 19.6 and not 15 ou 13% you don't pay american VAT in France (if it is american VAT ) , it is non sense. Why 13 , 15 why not 20 ? i don't think what you say is right.

Why wouldn't you pay American VAT in France? Of course you do that.
If you buy a record from www.decks.de, then you pay German VAT (it's included in the price already).

From what I can calculate it is 15% that is being added. In Denmark we have 25% VAT, so 15% is fine for me (even though I of course would like not to pay that tax at all).

And I'm sure my contact at Beatport is lying when he says that:

from now on we are obliged to take VAT... damnit!

Will give u further info asap!

and the thing about the mechanical rights being put in place and that will be paid from this quarter is also from official Beatport mail to the labels, but then again, they might be lying to us.

[vermi]

You should also take into consideration that you must pay for VAT when you buy a record. If you pay 10e for a record at Hard Wax, part of that 10e includes the VAT costs. It may seem conveinent to not worry about or see the VAT charge, but reality is you're paying VAT whether you like it or not.

not exactly corret. this doesn't apply to all countries... whenever i buy records from juno, decks, forcedexposure, etc, they never charge me for vat/taxes. you know why?
it's because norway is not a member of the eu + it's always possible to "avoid" foreign taxes (i.e. get them refunded at the airport or something) as long as you pay the taxes for that exact merchandise in your native country. so i'm only obliged to pay taxes to the norwegian government (that sux too though - but only for purchases with a total value over 200nok ~ $40 ~ €25 ~ whatever).

of all the times i've bought music on beatport, i've never bought music for more than 200nok in one purchase. not because i'm obliged to pay taxes if i do, but because i rarely find enough music that i want in digital format to be able to exceed that limit.

so where's the logic in that beatport now is going to charge me vat/taxes for purchases i do that does not exceed this limit?

who is getting these money? shouldn't be so hard to figure out. if beatport charge vat/taxes of a customer, that in the first place is not obliged to pay these taxes, i'm pretty sure that they keep this money. who else should get them? it's not like that the us government is charging them for every sale they do, no matter what. they also got rules to follow.

regarding countries that are members of the eu, you're probably correct (i don't know the laws they got within the eu, same thing for the us/canada).

the only thing i know 100% for sure is that as long as i live in norway, i will always have the possibility to buy vat/tax-free items from an foreign shop (unless they should change the laws and remove this of course) as long as the total value is under 200nok (which hopefully will be increased to 1000nok soon). and that applies both to european and north-american shops.