Re: [tlug] Japan to Tax E-Content

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

>> ...it is my country of residence that matters here, not my IP
>> address. ... (The book in question was set for sale only in North
>> America; the publisher had not checked the boxes to allow sale in
>> the rest of the world. Amazon offer this option as sometimes there
>> are exotic copyright conditions like that; in this case the
>> publisher had just made a mistake.)
> 
> Is this a Kindle book?  If so, you CAN buy from amazon.com (via 
> amazon.co.jp) with a Japanese address, in yen, using a Japanese
> payment method. ...

Hello "C",
I should've replied to your email yesterday, sorry. I do have my U.S.
and Japan Kindle accounts linked. I've bought lots of other e-books from
Amazon U.S.

The point, about this one particular kindle book, is that Amazon were
not allowed to sell it outside the U.S., at the publishers request.
Nothing to do with IP address, currency, etc.

Climbing back up this thread, the real point I was making was that
Amazon have the technical ability to add on Japanese sales tax to e-book
orders to Japanese residents, because they already know who is a
Japanese resident.

My doubts come from wondering how the Japanese government are going to
motivate a U.S. corporation to do extra work, and collect extra tax, on
its behalf.

It is clever that they will ask Japanese corporations to self-declare
overseas e-book purchases, and force the payment directly that way.
(After all if the Japanese corporation does not declare it then they
cannot declare it as a tax-deductible expense either.) But from the
point of view of your U.S. seller that is even worse, as now they have
to distinguish between Japanese residents who are not companies and
charge and collect tax, and Japanese residents who are companies, and
not charge or collect tax.

I suppose they could drop half the plan, and just charge Japanese
corporations, not consumers. This mirrors the way custom duties work -
you are not charged for personal-use imports, but are charged for
business-use imports.

Actually, now I think about it, that makes reasonable economic and
political sense. So if that isn't what they do then it becomes more
clear this is a policy more about trying to weaken Rakuten (kobo) and
Amazon, sponsored by vested interests, than a way to increase tax revenue.

Darren