Registration purchases are made through the ShareIt! online store, which is not owned or operated by DEVONtechnologies.
My understanding is that the VAT tax rate is automatically set by ShareIt! depending on the customer’s location in the European Union.
A) So why 19% ?
B) Is it an arbitrary figure ?
C) How much do US citizens have to pay as a taxable percentage and how much for someone from Karla Lumpur or Botswana ?
D) Why not have a fair price that every user - no matter where they live pays. And then take the companies ‘physical location’ national tax percentage out of that amount.
E) Say/advertise an upgrade fee of $30 - pay upgrade fee of $30 not be charged $39.
what does your anger at the eu tax system have to do with devon think.
if someone in zimbabwe rhodesia, say, had a 100 per cent VAT tax, then under your proposed point of sale system devonthink should be free, yes?
you should write to your eu parliament about your 19% tax. people in other countries pay taxes too but the system might be based on their income or property ownership instead of consumption. we all pay taxes. now stop crying in your beer and suck it up.
The point for me is that the way it is listed is confusing.
Most software companies do charge VAT in addition to the basic cost. But this is added after one has entered the credit card information, including the country of purchase.
As a resident of the UK I am just used to this, and accept that the final amount I pay is not the listed price of the software. But presumably US residents don’t get charged this tax, so there is no reason why the tax should be mentioned.
Or, at least, make the information clearer by stating on the main pricing page that tax can vary from 0% to 19% depending on country of purchase. Don’t put this in a separate link as at present.
Uhhh… dude. WTF?
As I understand it, it depends on where the buyer lives not the seller.
…And that’s my point. We are all the same. If the founder of this company is based in Germany then all of us, every user should pay the same US dollar rate. All else is unfair and goes against everything we should all stand up for - equality. Plus it is erroneous to receive an email saying that for being such a loyal user for four years, you can upgrade for a low fee of $30. Then go through the checkout - and then finally realise that it’s gone up a quarter of the stated advertised price without prior warning.
STFU. Tax codes don’t work like this. Why don’t you go convince all the governments to abolish all their tax laws and set a single global rate.
It’s the responsibility of the selling company to abide by tax laws. It’s frankly NOT their job to go investigate how to reverse engineer each one so you there is one unique price that is exactly the same to all buyers in every location. And what a waste of their time, when they can be writing better software, to spend hundreds or thousands of hours so some forum wank can save $2.00 because of “unjust” tax codes that are the fault of your country, not of DEVON technologies.
even at 39 dollars based in euros you are getting a better deal than the yanks because the dollar is heavily discounted for you. i bet you are paying a smaller percentage of gdp than we are.
why don’t you politic to raise american salaries so we can pay 39 dollars too? doesn’t that comprise your arbitrary def. of ‘fairness?’ or do you want to have your cake and eat it too!
The exact tax amount is a minor issue - the issue is… that I was sent an email by Devon-Tech offering a $30 upgrade fee - that morphed into $40. Advertised one thing… turned out to be untrue. No mention of Tax ?
I would have been happy with a forum reply saying sorry ( whoops… our bad ) - In future our site and emails will include the info that tax will be added onto the cart at the final payment section. Not a bunch of sycophantic losers frequenting a database application forum. Really who are you people ?
And Catone - ‘Forum wank’ - shame on you.
Ladies and gentlemen, relax. What we have here is most likely a difference of culture. In the US, where I am from, tax is not included into the price of an item; each state adds its own tax – or doesn’t – on top of the item’s price, and it is a known and expected fact of life. In the UK, where I now reside – and I believe it is the same in much of the rest of Europe – tax, the VAT, is built into the price of the item; in fact, most companies do “reverse-engineer” the price of the item + the VAT to equal a nice round sales number (ex. £9.99, of which 15% is VAT and the rest is the item’s price). As such, if in the UK, anyone was to advertise something as costing £9.99, and then add on top of it 15% VAT in checkout, most people would read it as an advertising lie; at the very least, the companies usually put in small print next to the advertised price something along the lines of “+15% VAT” in the advertisement itself.
As such, this argument is probably simply a difference of cultures and of expectations.
I think that some people would be confused no matter what (not to mention that DT would have to keep track of different tax rules if different countries … and perhaps even different regions of a country). The problem is that where I live the price is normally given with tax … unless you buy things that are expensive 
or stuff that are often bought by companies in which case the price is without tax. In the US the price normally seem to given without tax (and then there are different tax rates/rules depending on state).
Jem - I say it’s not about the tax amount, as so much that it’s placed on as a non advertised extra.
Lets see :
A) Yojimbo 1.5.1 advertised as = $39 - you pay $39 ?
B) Scrivener 1.12b1 advertised as = $39.99 - you pay $39.99 ?
C) Together 2.2.3 advertised as = $39 - you pay $39 ?
D) Circus Ponies NoteBook 3 advertised as = $49 - you pay $49 ?
E) Journler 2.5.5 advertised as = $34.95 - you pay $34.95 ?
Does anyone see a pattern forming ?
DevonThink Pro ( Upgrade ) advertised as = $30 - you pay $39 ?
If you are going to be so anal as to not be like everyone else in your profession and aspire to be more like a retail outlet… then please for us used to shareware being advertised and sold as shareware - advertise the full price - including the fact that customers are going to be taxed extra. DevonThink is bucking the trend and it comes across as incredibly unthoughtful. It’s how an account thinks, not a Mac software developer. Just look around you.
benignstar, obviously you are unaware of how Taxes are implemented, you posts are hilarious and a waste of time.
DEVON is absolutely right not to advertise taxes ! It is none of his business ! It depends where the Buyer lives, PERIOD !
Who are you, man to be so blind ! I can only see a boring pattern in what you showed
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Smilingtiger
For all those examples above I would expect to pay the amount + tax (my local tax) if I were to buy through a service like eSellerate. I don’t own Scrivener or Together so I can’t say how this handled, I payed for Journler using Paypal and tax wasn’t applied (could be because Journler isn’t sold enough in my area - the company has to sells above a certain limit for the law to apply or because the publisher don’t bother keeping track of all the tax laws around the world), I got Yojimbo and NoteBook for free so no tax there either.
My expectations, however, is when I see a price on-line from a “larger” company or one that uses eSellerate/ShareIt/etc to handle the payment is to pay tax (=the tax that applies where I live). So when I upgrade DT I’ll expect to pay approx $37.50
None of them charge tax as an unadvertised extra Jem - period !
I am only replying - because I keep getting an automated email saying someone has responded to this thread - Foolishly thinking someone who actually works for this company will write saying they apologise for any misunderstanding and will make an effort to advertise the exact price a user will have to face paying instead of just the pre-taxed price.
But it seems no one here is a Gentleman or a Lady or realises the customer is always right… and given a little courtesy. Four years of contributing to this company… really bad PR, really bad.
I wasn’t going to feed the troll, but …
The customer is not always right.
And you have the audacity to expect courtesy from others after the negative and accusing attitude you’ve frequently expressed yourself with here, slapping people who’ve sincerely attempted to help?
If you aren’t part of or affiliated with Devon-Technologies and don’t also feel angry about the company advertising a price and then suddenly that figure going up 19% more at the point of final sale - go elsewhere - Because you are bored and therefore just being a troll yourself.
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Have you actually tried to purchase DT and been charged tax, or have you just assumed you will be charged?
The info link makes it clear that the amount of tax will depend on the purchaser’s country, and it would not surprise me if US purchasers paid zero tax.
As a UK user, I am often faced with the opposite situation. That is, I buy US software whose price is quoted, and find at checkout that tax gets added.
I prefer the DT usage, except that (as I said before) I think they could word things more clearly.
Just like you - I have been charged 19% - Which is an odd figure.
The developer comes from The Czech Republic but the company is now located in the US - And then the company that receives the payments ( Share-it) is based in Germany.
I on the other hand, have paid into nearly hundreds of US shareware applications over the last 12 years and have only faced this two or three times - It is very rare and very odd considering that the vast majority don’t do it.