"Adrian" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 08:57:42 +1100, john james wrote:

There are a lot of industries which Germany does very well in.
Road vehicles are 18% of German exports by value, US$250bn in 2013.

What matters with regard to what is being discussed is exports outside
the eurozone, not exports in general.

I didn't commented on that, just pointed out that some exports,
particularly by small exporters, would be easier if Britain was outside
the EU because then the exporters would not have to bother with the EU
requirements on charging the VAT due in the country it is exported to
with intangible stuff as opposed to tangible goods.

Exporting to countries within the EU, the only time the situation you
describe would come into play,

That isn't correct with the change that came in at the start of this year.

news.individual.net did in fact decide not to bother to
accept subscribers who were not in Germany because of
the new tax arrangements that came in at the start of this
year.

would be far _more_ complicated, not less.

That is not correct with the tax change that came in at the start of this
year.

Unless, of course, the UK were to remain within the EU free
trade or VAT areas after leaving the EU itself, in which case
the _exact_ same situation as currently would still apply,

But that does see some not bother to export because
of the extra hassle involved in doing that.

except we'd have no say at all in future trade negotiations.

All of EEA and EFTA members except for Svalbard are EU Free Trade
members, btw, but none are VAT members currently, although
several non-EEA and EFTA overseas territories of EU countries are.

That's all a separate issue to the exporter charging the vat that
is due in the country the intangible goods have been exported
to and forwarding them to the buyer's country. Quite a few of
the smaller exporters just can't be bothered with the hassle that
doing that involves, particularly getting VAT registered in every
country that they might export to or using the scheme that
simplifies that in Britain currently.