Why not? After all, and if you are “afraid” of them, they are humans in their best sense 
. I believe (quite sure) that they (European Commission) “invented” GDPR as well. Thank you very much for this input!
Because to assert that I would have to have a detailed knowledge of the regulations (I don’t) and familiarity with any relevant case law (I don’t).
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I assume that is part of this European Commission ruling against VAT exemptions in 2008.
Here is what Article 132 of the VAT Directive says:
CHAPTER 2
Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest
Article 132
- Member States shall exempt the following transactions:
(a) the supply by the public postal services of services other than passenger transport and telecommunications services, and the supply of goods incidental thereto;
(b) hospital and medical care and closely related activities undertaken by bodies governed by public law or, under social conditions comparable with those applicable to bodies governed by public law, by hospitals, centres for medical treatment or diagnosis and other duly recognised establishments of a similar nature;
© the provision of medical care in the exercise of the medical and paramedical professions as defined by the Member State concerned;
(d) the supply of human organs, blood and milk;
(e) the supply of services by dental technicians in their professional capacity and the supply of dental prostheses by dentists and dental technicians;
(f) the supply of services by independent groups of persons, who are carrying on an activity which is exempt from VAT or in relation to which they are not taxable persons, for the purpose of rendering their members the services directly necessary for the exercise of that activity, where those groups merely claim from their members exact reimbursement of their share of the joint expenses, provided that such exemption is not likely to cause distortion of competition;
(g) the supply of services and of goods closely linked to welfare and social security work, including those supplied by old people’s homes, by bodies governed by public law or by other bodies recognised by the Member State concerned as being devoted to social wellbeing;
(h) the supply of services and of goods closely linked to the protection of children and young persons by bodies governed by public law or by other organisations recognised by the Member State concerned as being devoted to social wellbeing;
(i) the provision of children’s or young people’s education, school or university education, vocational training or retraining, including the supply of services and of goods closely related thereto, by bodies governed by public law having such as their aim or by other organisations recognised by the Member State concerned as having similar objects;
(j) tuition given privately by teachers and covering school or university education;
(k) the supply of staff by religious or philosophical institutions for the purpose of the activities referred to in points (b), (g), (h) and (i) and with a view to spiritual welfare;
(l) the supply of services, and the supply of goods closely linked thereto, to their members in their common interest in return for a subscription fixed in accordance with their rules by non-profit-making organisations with aims of a political, trade-union, religious, patriotic, philosophical, philanthropic or civic nature, provided that this exemption is not likely to cause distortion of competition;
(m) the supply of certain services closely linked to sport or physical education by non-profit-making organisations to persons taking part in sport or physical education;
(n) the supply of certain cultural services, and the supply of goods closely linked thereto, by bodies governed by public law or by other cultural bodies recognised by the Member State concerned;
(o) the supply of services and goods, by organisations whose activities are exempt pursuant to points (b), (g), (h), (i), (l), (m) and (n), in connection with fund-raising events organised exclusively for their own benefit, provided that exemption is not likely to cause distortion of competition;
§ the supply of transport services for sick or injured persons in vehicles specially designed for the purpose, by duly authorised bodies;
(q) the activities, other than those of a commercial nature, carried out by public radio and television bodies.
- For the purposes of point (o) of paragraph 1, Member States may introduce any restrictions necessary, in particular as regards the number of events or the amount of receipts which give entitlement to exemption.
@amosbatto, I don’t know who is misleading here, @antonis perhaps, just by trying to get some proper answer, but yes, sorry for disturbing you, my intervention (discussion) was unnecessary as we know that EU tax law is strict. Anyway, this link, covering Article 56 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC, for example, is for me easier to understand when talking about that VAT needs to be payed indeed, but still up to the belonging rate (either 19% or eventually 7% within Germany) for products (like Librem 5) and services “provided by suppliers established in a third country to non-taxable persons (B2C) established in the EU, must be taxed at the place where the customer resides or has a permanent address.” My approach is clear to me: Purism (as manufacturer and privacy orientated software developers team, and as such, it is clearly not some kind of registered non-profit organization) needs to be oriented toward all customers (B2C), including proper separation and therefore calculation of products and services they offer to us within EU member countries. If Purism Invoice includes only (without mentioning of their own, self-certified software):
- Librem 5 v1 - 1 pcs. – this would mean that I, as B2C, need to pay 19% of VAT (nothing else).
Simple (VAT) solutions are not always the best way to play with potential/additional customers, if it is about privacy, or much better, almost professional privacy orientated product. I think insisting on such SW/HW differentiation of applicable VAT rates within EU make some sense to me, but I might be wrong. I at least tried to contribute and not to disturb (not a single person).
Have a good New Year!
The German text says that Purism will reorganize the service and open a new customer care, service and delivery center in Carlsbad, Ca
matthias
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I got my librem5 today. I had to pay 142EUR for coustoms/VAT/handling. DHL took a about 40 EUR for handling. Their service was pretty good. I got a SMS at 8am with payment instructions. I payed via Creditcard. at about 12 I had the package in my hands.
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Thanks for your experience, that sounds like a decent experience. Which country is that?
…and… Have fun with it!
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Austria. I also think the experience is OK.But for evergreen It would really be nice to get the shipment from within Europe.
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For canada/quebec DHL there is a VAT fee of 135$ CAD.
Thanks for posting about this, as I honestly didn’t realize we might be subject to this in Canada as well. Knowing this now, at least it won’t be a shock when I finally get my Evergreen phone.
I called CBSA in 2017 and my duty for the initial crowdfunding price is going to be around $155
(we pay different taxes here)
We don’t pay what they’re referring to as VAT (because we’re not part of the European union). Call 1-800 O-CANADA and tell them you want to talk to a border agent because you have questions about importing by mail and duty fees.
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You’re correct of course. This is the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax, since I’m also in Ontario) which is basically what we call it instead of VAT.
I didn’t really realize I’d have to pay this when I originally ordered, but on reflection I should have known this. Most of my online purchasing lately is unfortunately Amazon, which through their Canadian site forces the sellers to register and collect and remit the taxes at time of sale. It’s been ages since I bought something where I had to pay the tax on delivery.
Tee hee, isn’t it like our patriotic duty or something to just automatically and quietly accept being screwed on taxes, etc. 
I know you’ve since revised your opinion, but I’d like to point out the following since that hasn’t been brought up yet: whether you pay import duties and how much is not based on whether the item was a purchase/gift/reward/…, nor what the invoice says. It’s based solely on the value of the object. If someone from the US sends me a $1000 phone for my birthday, I’m still presented with the invoice for the import duties.
Now, most of the time, the invoice is the number it’s based on, but if I receive a brand new iMac from the States, and the invoice lists an unrealistical value of “$150”, customs will dismiss that and assess the value themselves. What they tax you will then be based on the more reasonable number they come up with.
Which renders this document moot, although it’s nice to see them spell it out explicitly.
Nice, So the price hike could affect us negatively if they consider the phone value at shipping time…
Probably not, because the price is reasonable for a smartphone. Customs doesn’t look up the price of every item entering the country, and prices can vary from shop to shop anyway. It’s only when the price is suspiciously low that they’ll start to investigage.
Remember, Customs is just people like you and me. It’s not staffed by folks who have an intimate knowledge of every product manufactured by every company on this planet. They’re also employed by the government, so odds of them going above and beyond the call of duty, when they already can’t handle the current amount of items entering the country, I’d estimate as pretty slim.
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Maybe they can evaluate it as overpriced compared to the pinephone and reduce tax amount 
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on the contrary they will check it against your order history and maybe decide to charge more … 
Are you it works like that?