Really?
Can you prove it?
It works by the way, stick a VAT number in there and that charge goes right away.
I, of course, used my bonefide company VAT number but just to test I tried Tesco's VAT number, available online and it removes the charge before you get to the bit where you input your credit card details.
I mean, seriously, if you can get out of paying sales tax to some other country so easily then who's not going to do that?
In that other country its not even called VAT, for example in Scandinavia its called MOMS. Don't know what its called in other countries.
The rule is that anyone purchasing software online in Europe is supposed to also pay this sales tax but the authorities have no way to enforce this recent ruling and the only thing they can do is put the onus on the one collecting the money, all he does is to ensure that there is a field into which the purchaser can type a tax number, then if they do he doesn't have to charge them the sales tax and he's covered.
When I had my international card payment system running all I did was put a checkbox 'Are you in Europe?' if they ticked it then I had to pay the VAT man his share for that particular purchase, I was covered as far as the VAT man was concerned and I took the loss so that my customers weren't confused by different payment amounts.
I have a sneaky suspicion that others using this system would re-calculate the price and that when people ticked that box and saw the price go up, they unticked it again
I don't think they would send the A-team out to another country to get anyone who didn't tick this box and I don't think they'll do it for anyone who puts in the wrong number either.