The EU closed a tax loophole, and I'm happy to support small local businesses over people shipping things from overseas. I'm sure there are edge cases, but overall I don't see an issue here.
Living in Belgium, my country has people producing stuff. But does it have a small business producing that one specific item I absolutely require for my project? It’s very likely it doesn’t. If I extend my search to the whole of EU, yes, probably one or two small businesses make those. Are there sufficient people in Belgium to buy this item if I wanted to create a small business to do so? No.
This tax is probably closing a loophole, but it’s badly designed and hurts small businesses more than anything because small businesses are the most likely to send to other countries to build their initial base. This tax reduces the discovery of what people do in ways no other tax did before.
No this even further consolidates international shipping to big e-commerce platforms while adding yet another tax to EU residents for items even where no local producer exists or can exist.
torlok · · focus · HN ↗
olivergregory · · focus · HN ↗
This tax is probably closing a loophole, but it’s badly designed and hurts small businesses more than anything because small businesses are the most likely to send to other countries to build their initial base. This tax reduces the discovery of what people do in ways no other tax did before.
Ekaros · · focus · HN ↗
account42 · · focus · HN ↗