I believe that any country in the EU is free to set its own VAT rate. The only caveat is that the rate can be no lower than 15%, as mandated by the EU.

"gain votes politically by giving away something to the lazy and unmotivated"

No, most of the tax giveaways go to corporate America.

Heh, I also know somebody who bought his car overseas - Japan to be precise - to save on the taxes. The thing was, he bought a car intended for sale in Japan, so the steering wheel was on the right side of the car. Was great fun going through the drive-thru at fast food restaurants; he'd always go through backwards so he could order and get his food, lol.

But this EU tax really sucks, though. At least the EU was "kind" enough to allow businesses to base the tax rate for all member nations off of the country that business has a base in. That is, because Sony has offices in the UK, they can charge the UK's 17.5% tax to all members of the EU. Otherwise, residents of Denmark and Sweden would be getting soaked with a 25% tax, ouch!.

As for the suggestion someone made for Sony to lower rates for EU members to make up for the tax; it will NEVER happen. Upgrading the software to handle the new special tax is costing US companies billions of dollars. Add to that the cost of maintaining a system for collecting and paying the tax plus all the lawyer fees to make sure things are legal now and for changes to the tax code in the future. This thing is sapping companies themselves for a LOT of money. Companies have the choice of absorbing these costs (not likely) or raising their prices to compensate. So if anything subcription rates will be going up. They may make an offset rate for Europeans, or they may raise everybody's rate. So if your rates for EQ, your ISP, eBay fees, etc start going up for us here in the US, you can blame it on the EU's shortsided money grab.

For those that had my initial gut reaction, the EU has no legal authority here so they can't enforce US companies to collect taxes for them; well that's technically true. However, the EU has hinted that should a company refuse to pay the taxes, should that company have trouble with copyright infringement in Europe, that government may be too busy to look into the matter. Essentially, "if you try to ***** us over, we'll pwn uR ***** ha ha u l4mers, the EU is teh 1337."

I really think, though, that all business should charge the EU with a "collection fee". That is, collect the required taxes, then remove the expense of collecting such taxes and hand over the remainder. If only a few companies do it, it won't work too well, but if a coallition such as what Wal-Mart formed against the credit card companies in its recent suit were to stick to it, then it just might work.

socialism is in the usa , K thanks

sorry to burst your bubble but I know there is one state that charges for internet access already, or something similiar on that line. So its happening here in the USA as well.