FastSpring Helps Clients Ensure Easy and Seamless Compliance with EU VAT Regulation

Global e-commerce leader ensures that clients meet regulations automatically as of January 1, 2015

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Dec 17, 2014, 03:16 ET

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- For many companies selling e-books, games, cloud computing or SaaS services in the European Union (EU), the new Value Added Tax (VAT) regulations taking place as of January 1, 2015 are a considerable source of added stress and administrative investment. Unless, that is, they are FastSpring (http://www.fastspring.com) customers, as the global digital e-commerce provider is helping its EU clients meet these regulations easily and automatically.

"As a leading e-commerce and subscription management company, FastSpring is proud to assist our clients with the challenges of meeting the demands of the new VAT. We're here to simplify the process, and will be accountable for legal and financial compliance with the new VAT on behalf of our customers affected by the new legislation," comments Chris Lueck, CEO of FastSpring. "Our clients will be able to continue to meet their customers' needs smoothly and with minimal worry in 2015."

Until New Years Eve of 2014, the VAT is based on the location of the business—not on the location of the customer. However, the new VAT rules, effective January 1, 2015, state that businesses must charge the VAT based on the customer's location. This means that even if a company is based in a low-VAT country, its customers in higher VAT countries will pay more tax because of their locations. Customers will not need to file those VAT taxes, but the businesses themselves will need to be prepared to file and report the VAT taxes collected. FastSpring, however, will be handling this on behalf of its clients in an automated process that will make the transition simple and stress-free.

How FastSpring EU Clients Are Already Prepared for VAT
One challenge for meeting these requirements lies in determining the country in which the consumer is located. FastSpring detects the customer location via IP address, which is the industry standard for these scenarios.

FastSpring then goes on to ensure that clients are seamlessly prepared for the 2015 VAT transition, as follows:

FastSpring already charges VAT based on its clients' customer locations. (This means FastSpring clients won't have to file any special paperwork or change an existing process.)
FastSpring will continue to file the VAT tax collected for its clients.
FastSpring will keep client VAT documentation for 10 years (required by the new law).

For more information on how FastSpring is supporting its customers affected by the new EU VAT regulations, please contact their award-winning support team at [email protected].

About FastSpring
FastSpring^® provides a highly acclaimed, all-in-one cloud-based e-commerce, merchandising & fulfillment platform that's designed specifically to meet the needs of software, SaaS, and other online service companies. FastSpring creates a seamless, fully branded purchasing experience that accomplishes a variety of crucial services, including: leveraging tools that increase client revenues across all customer touchpoints; gathering key customer-centric data, leveraging multiple payment methods, global currencies & languages; offering intelligent gateway routing logic for optimum card acceptance; managing fraud/chargebacks, tax collection, robust reporting; and providing an award-winning 24/7 client experience with dedicated account executives. To find out more please visit their website at www.fastspring.com.

All companies referenced in this press release, including FastSpring^® are the trademarks of their respective owners.