[corepicsParticipant]

It’s time to revive this thread a bit.

I’ve talked to several symbiostock users from within the EU, as well as to our tax guy, and we’ve established what’s required for us, EU symbiostock users with a VAT number.

1. When registering, an EU customer needs to be able to register with his/her full company details:
– Company Name
– Company Address
– Country
– Contact information
– VAT number (can be verified during registration for EU customers)

2. The above information will also need to be stored for the site owner, if the Symbiostock site is registered to a company within the EU. (But this is also good practice for anyone else!)

3. A settings page, containing three (!) different VAT percentages, only applicable for EU symbiostock sites.. Although this is not quite relevant for 2014, the rules are likely to change in 2015, which’ll make three VAT percentages necessary

4. When a purchase is made, the system needs to run through the following script:
a. Is the customer a company? If no, then VAT %1. (regardless of location). If yes, then:
b. Is the customer from the same country as the site owner? If yes, then VAT %1. Else:
c. Is the customer from another country within the EU as the site owner? If yes, then VAT %2. Else:
d. The company is from outside the EU. Then VAT %3.

5. After payment is made, both EU site owner as well as all (EU) customers need to be able to access a PDF invoice / receipt. (either via download, or via email) This PDF invoice needs to display:

Transaction date
Full Sellers information
Full Buyers’ information
Transaction statement: Item, Item type
Sales price, excluding VAT
Appropriate VAT %
The addition of Sales price + (sales price * VAT%)
Transaction statement: Paid

I’ve contacted several local plugin developers, but they are unwilling to work on a fixed fee basis, as they are hesitant to fiddle with the symbiostock code, as they’re unsure what they’ll find, and how long it will take them.

We’re looking for a developer, and anyone who’s willing to contribute to get this show on the road. Please chime in, send me an email (dewolf@wesellimages.com) or PM.

I’ll be away on vacation until early march, but will respond when I get back.

Cheers,

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

thanks, and have fun in Porte du Soleil!

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Sandor,

Thanks for your reply.

– I’m aware of the exemption. It doesn’t apply for us any more. Furthermore, the rules are as follows: you get to use the exemption, if your sales taxes are below a certain amount, but you’d still need to file the sales taxes, and thus have taxes sorted out properly.
– We have a VAT numbers, and so do many others
– We already have a full accounting in place, also for equipment, etc.

The thing is, that most of the clients I’m currently buying for (and selling to as well) will not even consider doing business, if they need to sort things out via email afterwards.

Thanks for the link, I’ll read through it.

Cheers,

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Leo,

Yes, I noticed. That info will need to display the full buyers and vendors information, and be downloadable as invoice in PDF format. That’ll be the easiest.

Jari (JHfoto – Germany) has replied to me. So far, the required tax information is:

Vendor’s information:
– Account holder name
– Company name
– Company address
– Chamber of Commerce number
– VAT number

Buyers information:
– Account holder name
– Company name
– Company address
– Chamber of Commerce number
– VAT number

Other information:
– Item description (already there)
– Sales price (already there)
– VAT percentage and total sum (will vary from country to country, also depending on international sales. I’ll find out what relationships apply for domestic sales, sales to another EU country, and sales outside the EU. My tax guy will be able to work that out monday

Think that’s it, so far.

Cheers,

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Leo,

Fully respect that. I’ve contacted JS via the contact form on his site, as well as a few others. I’ll do my best to keep this ball running, but can’t do it without a bit of your guidance, as I’ve only started building our site with Symbiostock last week.

See also: http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=21810

Cheers,

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Leo,

Thanks for chiming in. I’ve begun finding peer sites within the EU who might have similar needs. I can’t give you a full list, today, though, as this matter seems to be quite complex . Might as well take a bit more time, anddo it right. I’ve sent you a PM, and have contacted a handful of European based Symbiostock sites.

To all others:

Apart from Jochen and jsfoto, Who else is affected by EU tax laws? Please chime in with your local requirements!

Thanks, and let’s make this happen!

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

I concur. We would really need much more client information, either during registration, or through a client profile page (editable by the client), as well as a few more options in the pricing system.

According to Dutch laws, we’re required by law, to add 21% VAT to any sales to Dutch customers. For sales inside the European Union, a 0% VAT rate applies, only if we can show an invoice with all client information (name, address, Chamber of commerce as well as VAT number, etc) to the Dutch Tax services.

I think it would be great if corporate clients / business would be able to fill in their full contact details:
– Account holder name
– Company name
– Company address
– Chamber of Commerce number
– VAT number

Also, I think having the ability to automatically add VAT based on the client’s location, as well as the ability to generate pdf sales receipts is almost a must have.

Further more, with this information, it would also allow sales to be invoiced later, as I know quite a few companies (especially the larger ones) are reluctant (or even refuse) to use paypal or credit card for this same reason.

I’m guessing a plugin for this purpose could do the trick, but unfortunately, I’m not a coder / programmer.

Any ideas, suggestions? How do other European Symbiostock users deal with this? For us, it’ll be a necessity to have, or develop, if sales start tickling in 🙂

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Joann,

Yes, I’m using ImageMagic, and was talking about php.ini. From what I read, the following need to be changed in the php.ini:

memory_limit = 128M
upload_max_filesize = 60M
post_max_size = 40M

I tried it with your settings as well, but the problem seems to be pretty persistent…

The knowledge base also states wp-config.php *may* need editing:
http://www.symbiostock.org/Help/Troubleshooting. It doesn’t make much of a difference, though.

[corepicsParticipant]

Hi Christine,

Thanks for the link. Hadn’t seen that one yet, but already tried that solution. Unfortunately, to no avail. I gave it another go, using your edited settings, but it still doesn’t work. (getting the error log).

Could it be the php version I’m using? Or any other server side settings which are available at the Bluehost cPanel?

I’d rather see if I can find a solution myself, to increase my understanding, than give Bluehost a call, although that would apparently be the quickest solution.

Thanks,

Hugo

[corepicsParticipant]

I noticed that images with a file size of over 10MB are not processed properly.
– no spaces or odd characters in the file name
– file names are only small caps

I’ve also tried adding the php.ini snippet from the knowledge base, but this just affects when the error occurs.
– No difference between php 5.2 or 5.4
– With the php snippet from http://www.symbiostock.org/Help/Troubleshooting, processing images via …/edit.php?post_type=image&page=symbiostock-process-images renders an error log.
– Without the aforementioned snippet in the php.ini file, the file preview isn’t rendered on the image editing page, and is hence also missing from the image detail page in the front end.

I also tried increasing the WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT in wp-config.php, but that doesn’t solve the issue either.

I’d like to upload some really big files, as well as keep the same workflow i currently use without having to reduce the file sizes.

Any suggestions?

[corepicsParticipant]

Good points, thanks. They definitely tipped the scale towards the conventional solution. Appreciated!

[corepicsParticipant]

Thanks, all! I’ll start right away… 🙂

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