I have been trying to understand why AC Berlin wants to charge me prices that include VAT. It is my understanding that VAT is not applied by any EU country when the item is exported to a country such as the USA that does not have a VAT. They say I have to get the money back from "customs' but the only customs I would be dealing with is the US Customs on my side of the pond. I don't think they refund monies (taxes) imposed by foreign governments like Germany.

Somehow or another IT-Trade from Austria (also in EU) manages to price products for shipment to the USA without VAT added. Can anyone enlighten me?

Quoted from "Shoggy"

IT-Trade is a wholesaler. If I would try to buy there they just would grin and say no ;D

Okay now I'm starting to understand the issues. A-C Berlin is in fact a factory or manufacturer's strictly retail store correct? When I spoke with Chris he said that it was not a part of A-C, but just used part of the name which I thought was awfully nice on their part at the time. I was thinking they wouldn't mind if I called a company here Aqua-Computer USA ;D

Here in the USA that kind of operation is extremely rare for manufacturer's as we are on a distribution model. In a distribution model manufacturer's usually don't sell retail unless they are disposing of factory seconds or refurbished goods at a major discount.

So A-C Berlin doesn't have a wholesale or export license that allows them to sell products without charging VAT? In the USA anyone can sell products without collecting sales tax, but the license required is on the side of the purchaser. Thus if you are buying for resale you get a resale license from the government taxing entity.

However, we can also sell anything without collecting sales taxes if we ship out of our individual state (i.e. California, Florida, New York, etc.) as we do not have a national sales tax. This also applies to anything we sell outside of the USA or is exported to another country.

So it appears that buying from A-C Berlin is not going to happen for most Americans as we do not want to participate in a VAT that does not directly benefit us. I think that Aqua-Computer itself needs to set itself up to directly sell to USA private citizens and also more importantly to distributors and retailers here. That appears to be the simple solution due to your tax laws.

Perhaps you should make this thread a sticky on the English Support Forum.

Quoted from "Shoggy"

Normally you will have to be a trader yourself to buy at IT-Trade.

Except that they also take private party export orders as well ;D

I spoke with my brother this evening as he is a CEO of a multi-national corporation and one of their facilities is in Germany. He says that ANY shipments leaving Germany bound for nations outside the EC (EU) should not have VAT applied to the pricing. He said that if someone at Aqua-Computer Berlin insists that I pay for the VAT that it would help if they researched German export and VAT laws.

This would also probably dramatically increase their sales to the USA. My brother also said that once you pay the VAT it will be next to impossible to get it back from the "customs" that Stefan Krumme advised me about.

Can anyone help?

Quoted from "Shoggy"

The girl with the ventilator is nice : Wallpaper? :-X ;D

You guys call the fan a ventilator? We call a pistol a ventilator ;D

In the USA that blatant display of womanly attributes puts some off, which I suppose is why the different site for export? Being a nurse I understand that what is okay in one culture may very well be verbotten in another. Makes the world a much more interesting place IMHO :o

Quoted from "IT-TRADE.NET"

Hi all,

to bring light into the dark: I hope that above information is useful for you guys!

Thanks for explaining this to others! I hope someone at A-C Berlin and LeftClicks reads this and sends me another quote! Export and international trading laws are another interesting subject that fills college classes to capacity. Perhaps if A-C would hire a consultant to help them in this area they would be better off in the world of international shipments