[bluecalm]

>>Having a startup in the US is a huge mess due to all the states and taxes,

In EU you will need to deal with VAT basically from day one (10k EUR of revenue). In US you will not deal with it until you can afford it as thresholds are very generous.

[embedding-shape]

If dealing with VAT is a large problem for your business today, running a business might just not be for you, it's very trivial today to get it right and there are even platforms who basically does all the "hard" work for you. But even without those 3rd party solutions, I think the complexity is vastly oversold, it's relatively easy to get right compared to other regulations. Maybe I'm just EU-damaged already though, YMMV.

[bluecalm]

>>If dealing with VAT is a large problem for your business today

It's not a problem for me today. It was a big problem when I had no revenue, needed to do all the paperwork, meet ridiculous local accounting requirements connected to selling software in a different currency than my local one, write code, setup licensing, shipping the software to the clients etc.

It was a major source of stress and sleepless nights for me.

>>But even without those 3rd party solutions, I think the complexity is vastly oversold, it's relatively easy to get right compared to other regulations. Maybe I'm just EU-damaged already though, YMMV.

It's easy when you have done it once and know the process. It's not so easy when you need to understand if your product meets a definition of an electronic service or something else, when accountants you are meeting don't know how to setup VAT-MOSS thing because it's still rare or when you need to add your tax authority about something and their reply is that they don't know so you need to write an official inquire (that requires a lawyer) so you can get your answer in a few months.

When I was setting a new company in another country it was easier for me because I already knew how the process work and I could hire a competent accountant before the new company had any revenue. It wasn't so simple when I had 0 capital and just wanted to ship software to see if people want to buy it.

[philipallstar]

Dealing with anything from day 1 is harder than doing it later when you have predictable money and growth.

[niemandhier]

At least in Germany, this is not correct. You do not have to pay that unless: You earned more than €100,000 this year or more than €25,000 last year.

[alibarber]

But there is no threshold for cross-border selling in the EU.

Fine if you're selling widgets at a market in Germany - but if you sell software abroad, make sure you're following [each] one of the 27 VAT codes correctly.

(From what I understand - would love this to be wrong)

[manuelmoreale]

I think they're referring to this https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/vat...

[anonzzzies]

You can just use a service for that if you find that too much work to do yourself. There are MoR services that do that for you for EU, AU, US states where it is required etc. It is more that most people outside the EU find it bullshit and just don't do it and complain about it anyway.