Well, it seems that the UK government really does not want to help small traders at all. If I wanted to send a copy of The Hooper Interviews and The Truth About Spring Heeled Jack here is the cost:
Order Summary:
Item Subtotal:
£11.46
Shipping Subtotal:
£5.04
Value Added Tax:
£0.80
Total:
£17.30
You notice that Valued Added Tax of 80p? Another book would add more so if I sent 5 books to the EU countries I get to pay a lot of tax. Finland, USA, Japan -no VAT. Germany, Netherlands, etc -VAT. So my previous estimates of sending books to shops for free to see "if we can sell them" and if they can they'll have more but at what they decide they want to pay me after sales -that figure shoots right up.
Now, no shop is getting free books from me based on that deal because it is crooked. It is not showing interest in the creator or supporting him/her but in squeezing every penny out of them and then seeing if you can be bother throwing a few coins their way. Incidentally, doing this by PayPal means you get charged for exchanging Euro for £ sterling. So, its throwing books away because you will be financially crippled.
This is why the tax man laughed at me -they screw their tax out of single sales -even if I buy them at Authors rates.
Almost makes buying your own printer seem worthwhile.
But being screwed over on all sides apart, I had a dream last night. Not that sort of dream. In this dream I was drawing a "Through-time" crisis involving the characters of the late Hansrudi Wascher. As I was reading Gerhard Forsters book on Wascher last night not surprising!
I have Green Skies to finish, though so fantasy stays in my head!
Yeah, I had the same problem with ordering comics from Spain. There are a lot of online shops but they charge you an arm and a leg for shipping. Can anyone tell me why we are in the European Union if not to get rid of this shit ? Whatever happened to : free commerce and free exchange of goods ? What´s will all these taxes ? I tell you, it´s a crooked game.
ReplyDeleteWell, it´s a different game in the UK since Great Britian is not officially in the EU.
And you wonder WHY the UK doesn't want to be in the EU! This bewautiful and sacred land....not. Seriously, it is ridiculous: one Currency -the Euro...but prices and value of the Euro still varies from country to country. Postal rates vary like crazy -though the USPS recently hiked its prices up so items from the US are more expensive....well, a $12 item will cost around $15 to post?? It really is killing off small businesses and how can we buy from each other in Europe with this going on (though the bloody German Ebayers who seem to think selling comics to the UK doesn't help -are they in the EU?). Basically, we are all in separate countries with our own currencies and it is a con.
ReplyDelete