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VAT is not applicable to ebooks in the UK. Here's a screenshot from the government guidance on VAT.

So why are #Itchio charging VAT on ebooks? And what are they doing with the funds they collect?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/zero-rate-of-vat-for-electronic-publications#items-that-are-entitled-to-the-vat-zero-rate

Are #Itchio turning the funds over to HMRC? If so, what are they telling them it's for? Because why would you pay tax on non-taxable products?

Are they giving the money to the authors? I'm pretty sure they're not.

Are they keeping the money they haven't earned?

Some cheap and easy alternatives to #Itchio for authors to consider. Source: #BookFunnel

First up, Gumroad.

Difficulty: Easiest
Pros: Gumroad covers VAT, helps with US sales tax, has no monthly fee, and integrates with BF
Cons: None [I’m going to disagree with BF here and say the con is lack of customisation]
Cost: 10% per transaction + processing fees

Next up, Payhip.

Difficulty: Easy
Pros: Payhip reports and pays EU & UK VAT on digital goods, accepts cards and PayPal, no monthly fees, quick to set up
Cons: None [sc: support not very helpful]
Cost: 5% per transaction + standard processing fees

Third is #Fourthwall.

Difficulty: Moderate
Pros: Fourthwall collects and remits taxes for you.
Cons: None [sc: hugely American-centric]
Cost: Up to 5% per transaction + standard processing fees

Fourth is #LemonSqueezy

Difficulty: Moderate
Pros: LemonSqueezy collects and remits taxes for you.
Cons: None [sc: fairly American-centric and no support for physical products such as paperbacks]
Cost: Up to 5% + up to $0.50 per transaction + standard processing fees

Fifth is #WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin

Difficulty: Moderate to difficult, depending on your comfort with WP
Pros: Easy to install *if* you’re a WP expert, buyers don’t have to leave your WordPress site to buy your book, low transaction fees
Cons: Requires a WordPress site and hosting, more issues than other sales platforms
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US + the cost of your WordPress site

Don't use Shopify; they support fascists.

I wish I didn't. I'm planning to migrate off as soon as I feasibly can.

One other thing that you can get with all the above options that you can't get with #Itchio is #BookFunnel integration. While you *can* deliver books yourself, you'll end up needing to handle your own tech support. I get frequent emails from readers who've bought direct but can't figure out how to get their books onto the device/app of their choosing. BookFunnel handles those for me.

@clacksee thank you so much for this thread! it is also highly relevant to folks working on fanzines - they also have both physical and digital options, and need to handle worldwide taxes

but also, another reason to dump itch (and anything else using a .io) is colonialism : https://fortune.com/2020/08/31/crypto-fraud-io-domain-chagos-islands-uk-colonialism-cryptocurrency/

@bouncinglime
Oh! I had no idea.

@clacksee it's one of those things that seems like it should be a bigger issue than it is?? so yeah I try to spread the good word haha