Vat Changes from 1st January 2015

Many of you will already know about the fiasco that is the Digital product VAT directive which comes into effect tomorrow. If you haven't I would suggest you google 'vatmess', pour yourself a long drink and be prepared to be bewildered by the nonsense the various EU vat authorities have dreamt up. A very thorough analysis of the situation was also written by Woolly Wormhead recently. (Please note there have been some updates to the situation since this post was written).

I won't bore you with too many of the details here but the bare facts are that digital downloads and ebooks to EU member states will have to be sold with vat added based on the country that the purchase is being made from. This along with complex audit requirements make the act of processing a sale extremely complicated. I have looked at potential options for my business and over the next few weeks you may see changes and potentially, glitches, on the website as Gavin and I rebuild our shop on a new platform that can better deal with these new vat requirements.

We don't know exactly how things will work in the first instance, but we will remain open for business throughout the switch-over and as the customer you will hopefully not be affected other than ultimately we hope to have a better, more streamlined website, shop and blog.

Due to additional processing costs incurred as a direct result of the new VAT rules I will have to increase prices on digital patterns and ebooks very slightly. These will be introduced over the next few weeks. I will keep these increases to an absolute minimum but the new system imposed creates a substantially increased administrative and processing burden on my business, that I just can't afford to absorb completely.

My patterns and e-books will also still be available on ravelry as before but again slight changes will be seen when you checkout and VAT may be applied dependent on where you, the customer, is based.

I will also be introducing 'hard copy' versions of a number of patterns to purchase via the website for those of you who would prefer this to a pdf download.

My apologies in advance for any complications during the switch over but as I said previously, we remain very much open for business! Its not the best way to be starting a New Year, but I'm determined - as always - to carry on.

With very best wishes for 2015


Susan xx