As of the July 1, 2003 all sellers of digitally-delivered products and services are required by law (known as E-Commerce Directive 2002/38/EC or the "Directive") to collect VAT taxes if the buyer resides in one of the European Community (EC) countries.
So we must comply with this, and ClickBank, who are the payment processor we use, handles all of this. They determine if VAT applies, and at what rate. They then collect the tax, file a return with each of the 15 countries in the EC, pay the tax, and handle any foreign currency exchange issues.
The tax rate may change from time to time and varies from approximately 15% to 25%, depending on the country. As of July 1, 2003, the VAT rates are:
AT Austria 20.0%
BE Belgium 21.0%
DK Denmark 25.0%
FI Finland 22.0%
FR France 19.6%
DE Germany 16.0%
GR Greece 18.0%
IE Ireland 21.0%
IT Italy 20.0%
LU Luxembourg 15.0%
NL Netherlands 19.0%
PT Portugal 19.0%
ES Spain 16.0%
SE Sweden 25.0%
GB Great Britain 17.5%
So I'm sorry to say that if you're in the EU, then you have to pay VAT.
I hope that doesn't change you mind about going with The Online Dog Trainer!