Shipping, handling and fulfillment from Europe will make RMA and warranty handling a lot easier, we totally agree and that’s why we are working on it. But concerning VAT again, it will not save anything. The sales prices in the Purism shop and during the campaign are without VAT - in fact without any taxes. Local taxes will always apply and we can not take into account all local taxes world wide.
Just to give another example… we are considering Germany as this fulfillment hub. This would then mean that if customers from the EU order at Purism and by choosing a shipping destination within the EU the shop will, in the future when this is established, automatically add the 19% VAT that needs to be applied in Germany. The German fulfillment place will be taxable in Germany and will have a German VAT ID, which means, Purism will then pay the 19% VAT that were collected at time of sales to the tax authorities in Germany. Businesses within the EU can order VAT free if they supply a valid VAT ID, consumers re not eligible for this, sorry.
So you see, regardless of where the VAT gets slapped onto the sales price, at some point the consumer has to pay it, one way or the other, there is no way around it. We as Purism can not just silently eat any and all taxes that may get applied somewhere - we already do this with the shipping cost and I can tell you that shipping is pretty expensive in the US.
Cheers
nicole