squirrel42

Do not mix up physical products and digital content. For physcal products the customer pays the tax when receiving the product. Example: I live in Germany and I ordered a smartphone from a Chinese company a few weeks ago. I paid the net price to the Chinese company and paid the tax when I got the product (Einfuhrumsatztsteuer is the term propper in German and that is nothing else than a VAT equivalent for products bought outside the EU). But for digital content, the issuing company has to collect the tax and forward it to the tax authorites.

And how long should that take? It's so very simple. I am subscribed to several content, both physical (i.e. printed) and digital, from several companies from different countries all over the world. Any single one of the companies dropped me a note in advance in case they had to change their subsciption rates. Why is it so hard for Groundspeak to do that as well? Oh, and I get propper invoices from any of the companies, by the way... Edit: typos

No, they haven't. I just looked it up. Still € for Estonia or Poland.

German authorities get more and more to know about geocaching. At the moment it's only the forrst departments, who prohibit geocaching in the one or other region. But what if German tax authorities one day think: Hey, there are some 1000 PMs. Do they pay VAT? And then all the German PMs get "nice" letters from the taxman and the PMs have not a proof that VAT was paid. And German tax authorities can be nasty! That is exactly the point!

You might have a point there. At least I can't think of any serious reason for not giving that number. One example: Here is the imprint of a German sports magazine. You'll find both, business registration and VAT registration right under the company name. They don't have a problem with that, so why should Groundspeek? (Any German company has to give those numbers in the imprint, by the way.)

Oh thanks, haven't heard of this board so far.

And there is the next unanswered question: If you change to recurring now will you then pay the old price?Say, I am a norecurring PM and my next turn would be in June and I'd tick the option recurrung today, what would they charge me in June?

Hey Groundspeek is "on the learning curve". You can't expect a brand new concept called "communication" being installed that quickly.

Hi, does anyone know Moonshiner Extraordinaire from Lucan, County Dublin, Ireland? http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=27480389-f704-477f-9ed4-4267a05e3977 The reason I ask is, I'd like to get in contact. Moonshiner holds one of my coins for about 3 years. I tried to contact Moonshiner via the send message button in the profile twice, the first time more than a year ago, the second time about a week ago, but I got no answer. According to the profile, Moonshiner is still active on geocaching.com, last visit was today. If anybody knows Moonshiner, please tell him/her to contact me. I just want to know, what happened to my coin. Greetings from Germany, squirrel42

As far as I understand the European Tax Laws, the VAT for digital content depends on the Country the Customer lives in. For Brits they'd have to pay British VAT, for Germans German VAT and so on.

I don't know about UK laws, but here in Germany it is mandatory to give the VAT rate and VAT amount in € on any receipt. Even when you just buy a box of milk in the local super market you'll find VAT rate and amount on the receipt issued at the check-out.

I just played a little bit with the payment options to become premium member. Any county i tried as "my location" outside the EU stated the price at 30 US-Dollars (I tried Switzerland, Russia, Australia, the US and some others), only the EU countries were rated at 30 Euros, no matter if they are in the Euro zone or not - except the UK (25 GBP). So please Groundspeak stop fiddeling about, tell us the story behind! I don't belive the VAT fairy tale.

I understand that G$ is a commercial company and that's totaly ok for me. It's about how they treat their customers. I dont' like to be lied to when buying someones product. That they delete critical posts shows clearly to my opinion: It's not about the VAT. But the VAT is the thin excuse they give. That's not ok. When they want to make more money from their european cusomers they should call it by that name. Simple as that. And not "hey, we've got something good for you..." Why is a higher price good for anmyone?

No, it'as not. You have to give the net. price, VAT Rate, VAT amount and the total price incl. VAT on a proper receit. It's not only permitted to give the VAT registration number, it is mandatory! So why you are making such a fuss about it? I think, the price was set at 29,90€ because it was 29,90$ before and G$ hoped that nobody would notice the shift from $ to €. Otherwise G$ would have communicated in advance and would simply give its VAT reg. number.

Das ist sicher auch ein Aspekt - aber mal ehrlich - was für geeignete Tauschobjekte gibts denn, die die den Raumbedarf eines Ü-Eies unterschreiten? Und für mehr ist - wenn überhaupt - kein Platz. Gegen Ü-Eier-Figuren an sich ist nichts einzuwenden, ist ja auch ein Sammelgebiet, aber müssen es kaputte Figuren sein? Und zum Platzthema: Selbst in großen L&L-Dosen und Munikisten findet sich fast nur noch Schrott. Und das ist ärgerlich. D'accord. Mach ich, wenn möglich und ich gerade was dabei hab immer wieder gerne. @fantasy2004 Ja und Nein. Gerade für kleinere Kinder ist es eben ein zusätzlicher Anreiz, wenn sie etwas "tolles" in den Dosen vorfinden können. Und gerade Kinder sind von unbrauchbarem Müll enttäuscht.

Also, bei mir hat das mit dem Tauschen nachgelassen, da ich fast nur noch sinnlosen Schund oder kaputte Ü-Eier-Figuren etc. in den Dosen vorfinde. Dabei gibt es selbst im 1€-Shop etliche nützliche Dinge, die sich als Trade Item gut eignen (Kulis, Schlüsselanhänger, kleine Taschenlampen, Dekokram...). Wenn nix drinn ist, wird auch nix getauscht.

I don't think putting money (i.e. legal tender) into a cache is a good idea. It is likely to be stolen and I don't know how to trad fair. Take out a Dollar bill and put in two half-dollars? Old money (out of use) is another topic, that's ok for me. I also prefer the kids stuff. In general, I trade seldom, but I usually have some miniature torches (flash lights) with me or some other more or less useful stuff to trade, just in case. About the illegal items: If I find something in a cache that can be dangerous, like lighters/matches (especially in forrests!), medicine, knives or food items (that may be attract wild animals) I take them out with no comment and no trade.

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