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ClickBank and VAT
Due to a European Community (EC)
directive of July 2003 ClickBank Charges VAT
on all purchases from customers in
countries where VAT applies. This causes
confusion for both buyers and sellers,
such as:
* Sellers who are not themselves
required to register for VAT, because they are
below the appropriate threshold, for
example, will find their prices being inflated by VAT.
But note that ClickBank, not product
owners, take payment, so effectively it is not the
product owner who charges VAT although
that is often not realised by customers.
If your customers complain or suggest
YOU are charging them VAT, not ClickBank,
refer them to this wording from
ClickBank's site:
'ClickBank purchases product from
publishers at a wholesale price equal to 92.5% of retail,
less a $1 stocking fee. ClickBank also
collects and remits EU VAT taxes as required.
If an affiliate generated the sale, the
wholesale price is automatically split between the
publisher and affiliate according to the
commission percentage set by the publisher.
Amounts are credited to the publisher
and affiliate at the moment of sale.'
* The amount varies by country and
will show before you approve the transaction.
* Sellers using Clickbank can
include a short mention at their site to indicate EC
buyers may be charged VAT. This
can often be self-defeating however, especially
viewed by non-EC buyers who may
subsequently consider the product is aimed at
European readers and may be unsuitable
for countries outside the EU. For example,
I use ClickBank for most of my online
eBook sales, mainly because I like and trust
ClickBank, also because I create
products of international appeal. My main reason
for choosing ClickBank, however, is
because the EC is just a tiny proportion of my
target market and the Dollar is the
currency most of my customers use in the course
of everyday life. My marketing is
overwhelmingly US based, targeting mainly American
readers, so any mention of VAT is
entirely superfluous in most cases. If, however, a
British or European potential purchaser
chances upon my site and chooses to buy
my product, he or she is made fully
aware that additional taxes are added to the price
by ClickBank. So potential buyers
have ample opportunity to choose to pay VAT or
to cancel their order.
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