Before posting, and to avoid disappointment, please read the following:

  • This forum is not for 2BrightSparks to provide technical support. It's primarily for users to help other users. Do not expect 2BrightSparks to answer any question posted to this forum.
  • If you find a bug in any of our software, please submit a support ticket. It does not matter if you are using our freeware, a beta version or you haven't yet purchased the software. We want to know about any and all bugs so we can fix them as soon as possible. We usually need more information and details from you to reproduce bugs and that is better done via a support ticket and not this forum.

VAT (Value Added Tax)

An area of the forum to post ideas for new products or discuss things that are not related to 2BrightSparks products
Post Reply
leinad
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 1:03 am

VAT (Value Added Tax)

Post by leinad »

Hi,

it was a bit of a surprise to me to see that in addition to the 53.79 EUR (sbp+onclick) I had to pay 10.23 EUR in taxes, a total of 64.02 EUR.

Here in Germany, the consumer is always presented the total amount of a purchase, VAT included. I event think that it is required by law that companies do this, and during the last couple of years, every online purchase I made, every company, even US ones, respected this.

So what I thought was a real deal (as cheap as Acronis True Image), kind of turned out to be not that true.

Not that this diminishes the value of your software. I believe it is way more valuable than Acronis True Image, and it's worth every penny, but doing this kind of stuff is somewhat of annoying so that it really disturbs the excellent image one can have about the company.

Please try to fix this, and present the value with VAT included (and possibly the option to remove VAT for companies). It now is common to do this. I mean, even the shopping cart with the proceed to checkout shows the smaller value, so one really things that this is the price to pay. At least a "VAT not included" message would do some good here.

Kind regards,
Daniel
mike
2BrightSparks Staff
2BrightSparks Staff
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 5:02 am

Re: VAT (Value Added Tax)

Post by mike »

Hi Daniel, thank you for your kind words about our software, and for your feedback about our store and the presentation of VAT.

I've reviewed the presentation of tax on our web store once again. I'm based in the UK so I also have to pay VAT and understand the benefits of viewing the full price of goods and services before payment. I have used stores in the past that have not shown the total price to pay including tax until the very last moment - there's no doubt about the frustration that causes.

In my latest test, VAT was clearly presented in the order summary on our store, before I entered any payment (card or PayPal) details. Here's what I did:

1. Visit the web store:

http://store.esellerate.net/2bs/store

2. Select your local EU currency so that the VAT will appear in the order process. I selected GBP British Pounds.

2. Click the "Buy" button to the right of SyncBackPro.

3. Click the PROCEED TO CHECKOUT button.

4. Customers are asked to complete the personal information form. Enter a valid EU address being careful to select your EU country from the drop down list. You can enter this to test things out:

Address: Windsor Castle
City: Windsor
State/Province: London
Zip/Postal Code: SL4 1NJ
Country: United Kingdom (scroll to the bottom)

5. Click "Next" and you should see the BILLING INFORMATION page which shows the order summary. Note that the following is presented:

Itemized Billings
SubTotal 36.96 GBP
Coupon 0.00 GBP
Shipping 0.00 GBP
VAT Tax (20.00%) 7.39 GBP
Grand Total 44.35 GBP

Note that VAT may be at a different rate depending on your EU country of origin.

At this stage no card details or PayPal information has been entered, and the customer can easily exit the shopping cart if they do not wish to proceed with the sale.

The shopping cart cannot calculate tax before the personal information is submitted as this includes the customer address. This address information together with the currency will form the basis of the VAT calculation.

I am sorry that in your case the VAT did not appear to show - perhaps becuase one of the entries you made in the required fields to calculate VAT did not match the criteria. Please test the store out again choosing Euros, and enter your name and address details. I'm sure you will indeed see the VAT clearly shown on the BILLING INFORMATION page.

As a note for our international customers, tax is calculated by our payment processors eSellerate, and follows the financial regulations that each country has decided upon.

Kind Regards,

Mike de Sousa
2BrightSparks Pte Ltd
http://www.2brightsparks.com

Power with Ease - Indispensable Utility Software
michael.kenward
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:26 am

Re: VAT (Value Added Tax)

Post by michael.kenward »

I think the issue is when you see the VAT added.

When I bought earlier today, I was presented with a price, around £10, with no mention at all that VAT would be added later.

As you say, it kicked in pretty quickly in the ordering, so there isn't much chance that someone would miss it, but some sites certainly make it clearer early on that there will be VAT on top of the list price.

While it is true that:
The shopping cart cannot calculate tax before the personal information is submitted as this includes the customer address.
the Product Catalog could easily say "36.96 GBP + TAX".

Actually, most European sites that I use factor in the tax and then deduct it if you supply a valid VAT code, which I had until a deregistered last year.
leinad
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 1:03 am

Re: VAT (Value Added Tax)

Post by leinad »

Mike, Michael is right.

I did see the total amount before approving the payment, it's just that it takes pretty long to become informed about the actual price.

My private information, i.e. street number and stuff like that, is kind of, well, private. I'm willing to hand over this information to a company only if I really know that I'm going to engage in a commercial activity with that company, so me handing over that information (including email address) not only to 2brightsparks but also to an untrusted shop provider is something I'm doing in good faith. I can deduce your trustwortyness from your excellent customer support and software quality, but what about eSellerate? How do I know they're not going to sell my email address? Nobody of us knows anything about them.

So, if I hand over that information, I'd really like to be already knowing which are exactly the conditions of this purchase. And if tax is included or not is one of those conditions.

Acronis, probably one of your harder competitors, doesn't have a problem with this (albeit they do with their software quality...).

I hope this helps you to understand my issue.

Kind regards,
Daniel
Post Reply