Hi,

I recently went partially legit and purchased Komplete Kontrol Ultimate CE as well as some izotope and eventide bundles.

I managed to save quite a bit of money with this little trick so I thought I'd share it. It worked for every purchase I made (note this only applies if you're in Europe):

Most plugin companies will charge the same price in euros or in dollars (aka 200 $ or 200 €). Furthermore, they will usually add the VAT top of the price at the end of the process (so 200 euros becomes 240).

If you are european, just change your country to United States and pick any adress in Delaware (no sales tax).

Now instead of paying 200 euros or 240 euros with VAT, you're now paying 200 $, which is 160 euros.

The adress is irrelevant since you are making a digital purchase. This method obviously doesn't work if you get a physical good delivered to your adress.

Cheers

Also I should mention, if you make money from music and want to deduct the expenses from your taxes, then you cannot use this method

 

This sounds like fun.. so, don't want to spoil the party. It has also been discussed here before.

But it involves use of a fictitious/inaccurate address for economic gain, which implies address fraud/tax fraud.

It's IMO a bit of a gray area. For now, I always pay VAT or use VAT nr. (for business) - heck, I won't literally pay money to get into some sort of trouble. I'd LOVE to have more info on this matter though, possibly from an expert in the field..

Death and taxes, you know..

 

I think you're right in theory, although in practice, I don't see how the government would ever find out about such purchase and I don't see them bothering, given we're talking about a few hundreds of euros in the digital realm.

Now if you own a commercial studio and you're spending thousands like this and the taxman comes that's a different story :D

 

First of all: If use a a VATID to purchase plugins, VAT is only applicable to residents of the EU who buy from companies in the EU.
2nd: In order to not get charged with VAT you have to use your personal VATID
3rd: If you use your personal VATID, it will be reported by the componies you ordered from to their finance authority.
4th: if you use that VATID for purchases within the EU as a resident of the EU, you have to inform whatever institution is in charge for collecting taxes in your country and than you are supposed to pay that VAT!

So in other words: if you are a EU resident buying from companies located outside the EU you can save money, if you are an EU citizen buying from companies within the EU and you don't inform the officials, you are technically commiting tax evasion!

 

..sadly the government(s) like to go after the "little people". Someone has to pay for their wages 'n stuff, lol.

The safest bet is to get a VAT reg. nr., maybe even as a freelancer or similar (that's possible in most countries).

Given the facts, everyone has to decide for themselves. Ofc., as an EU citizen I'd love the idea.. ;)

BTW, me too waiting for

..boxed! Paid the damn taxes tho