"Adrian" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:04:00 +1100, john james wrote:

But if Britain chose to leave the EU, an exporter would not be required
to charge the VAT that applies in the buyer's country and forward that
VAT collected to the buyer's country.

If somebody in the UK buys something from France, now, they pay French
TVA on it in the same way as a French resident would.

If somebody in France buys something from the UK, now, they pay UK VAT on
it in the same way as a UK resident would.

Not with intangibles like ebooks.

If somebody in the UK buys something from France, after we leave the EU,
they would pay UK VAT (and any duty that might be applicable) on it on
import, involving declarations of value and usually a handling charge from
the courier in the same way as if it came from outside the EU currently.

Again, not with intangibles currently.

If somebody in France buys something from the UK, after we leave the EU,
they would pay French TVA (and any duty that might be applicable) on it
on import, involving declarations of value and usually a handling charge
from the courier in the same way as if it came from outside the EU
currently.

Again, not with intangibles.

Seems to me that the current way of dealing with
other EU countries is by far and away the easier one.

Not with intangibles where small exporters have to
collect the VAT that is due in the buyer's country
and remit that to the buyer's country somehow.

Even the MOSS system involves a lot more work
for small exporters than the system that would
apply if Britain was outside the EU where the
customs system has to get the VAT that is due
form the buyer or do without with intangibles.

Unless, of course, you really believe that
the UK would get shot of any kind of value-added/goods-and-services/
purchase/sales tax if we left the EU?

No I do not. It's only places like Hong Kong that can do that sort of thing.

And I agree that the economic value of the small
exporters being able to export with less effort once
Britain left the EU would be trivial compared with the
loss of exports from foreign owned car manufactures
to the EU alone when they decide that they will no
longer make cars in Britain and export them to the
EU and move their operations to say Spain instead.

Can't see that happening, not least because it would leave a roughly
£100bn hole in the Gov'ts income each year that'd need to be filled with
something else.

Sure.