2023 Homesteading Bundle

Joseph E Smith wrote:Hi all,

I own this bundle as a gift, yet I am unable to download any of the items in it. I know what you are all thinking. Wow this moron Joe clearly did not follow the link in the email on the tutorial of how to download your items. That is understandable, but I did follow the instructions.

I went to my stuff, I followed the link to the 2023 Homesteading Bundle, which brought me to here, but at the bottom, under purchase as a gift, there is no link to download anything. I have also tried to click each item individually to see if I could download them separately and am having the same issue. Is this happening to anyone else?

How can I troubleshoot this?

Hi Joseph,

Al is well - we're sending gift codes to each item manually.  Be watching your email - you'll get one for each item.  

thanks!
Beau

paul wheaton wrote:

Mike Haasl wrote:

Silke Van der Stockt wrote:Awww sad this is only for people in the US. I would have loved all these resources!

I'm pretty sure this is available world wide.  Did it say that somewhere?

We do not sell digital content outside the US.  I don't wanna touch that VAT stuff.

What about if we send you an Amazon gift card ? Can we buy from Europe ?

I've see the issue of overseas supply of Permies products come up frequently, so this time I thought I'd go do a bit of research to understand the problems.

Bottom line, for countries that charge VAT (another term for sales tax), to sell electronic products or services to a consumer resident in that country is complicated to say the least - much more complicated than I'd any inkling of before having a look.

As a direct seller of digital products and services, the vendor would need to register for VAT or Sales tax in each country where a customer is located that they sell to. There are ways around that, which I'll mention in a moment, but under ordinary circumstances a direct seller of digital goods and services would need to not only register in the country, but also keep up their knowledge of all the nuances of what is taxable and what is not, the tax rates, obtain digitally traceable evidence of the customer's overseas location and retain records sufficient to satisfy the overseas tax authorities if asked. Phew!!! Not something to be taken on lightly.

I did not research widely - there are hundreds of countries that tax digital products and services provided to their residents - but there seems to be some common themes. If the digital service is an online course, with an element of there being a live tutor involved, it seems to be widely accepted that the point of sale is the location of the tutor, even if lots of electronic books and papers are also involved. Zoom calls seem to be totally excluded from VAT or sales tax - probably because even government bureaucrats that LOVE administration find that concept too challenging. If someone emails you a pdf attached to an email, its not a digital sale or service that attracts sales tax at the point of receipt of the email - BUT if you download the same document from an automated system, then it is a sale captured by the VAT/Sales Tax rules in the country of the customer. I don't know if that's everywhere or just applies to the few countries where I looked.

On the basis of researching direct sales of digital materials, I think Permies would need to be selling at kindle book volumes to make it worthwhile to directly sell to foreign customers and incur all the pain of registration and accounting for the tax. I totally agree with Paul on that point.

I don't bother doing research just to be able to say 'ain't it awful' but rather to find if there are ways around the issues, and I came across two methods that might be of interest. The first, and possibly most viable for Permies, would be the use of a "merchant of record" service, whose whole business is built around solving the sales / VAT tax conundrum for businesses that want to sell into other jurisdictions. Basically, they take on the transactional part of the equation and leave all the marketing, customer satisfaction and fulfilment to the vendor. Their expertise is in keeping up with tax laws and registrations everywhere and from the foreign government point of view, the customer has purchased from the "merchant of record" rather than from the actual vendor. One example I came across was a company called Fastspring.com - but there are probably dozens of similar companies and vetting them to make sure they are truly tax compliant where they need to be, could be challenging.

The other exception I came across multiple times (but again, may not apply anywhere I didn't look), is that any vendor selling through an online marketplace is not responsible for the sales tax/VAT registration and payment of the taxes due - the online marketplace is the responsible party. Amazon and eBay are the obvious prime examples, but again there are plenty of others.

Perhaps there is a mechanism that enables selling via Amazon without listing/advertising the specific goods in the Amazon online catalog? That's research that goes beyond my interest level - but someone who is impacted by this issue might want to pick up and research further. I'm not sure the gift card idea would work because that's more like using a foreign currency exchange - and how would the marketplace know to charge you tax for the purchase or at what rate of tax, and get the compliance reporting to the foreign country correct, etc. Possibly worth someone else looking further into this.

Online Marketplace sites and Merchant of Record services may be prohibitively expensive to use. I don't know, that too was outside the research task I set for myself.

Anyway, I hope that gives folks a bit more insight into why Paul won't sell digital content outside the US.

 

Wow, thank you for the research!
I understand of course it is likely not worth it...

most of these books that I bought in the homestead package I can't access or download!

joel icard wrote:most of these books that I bought in the homestead package I can't access or download!

That is weird.  A link to one, please?

I bought this and am only now getting around to reading them all... everything worked so far except this one:

The Weekend Homesteader: Winter
by Anna Hess
The winter chapter of Anna Hess' guide to homesteading through the seasons.  If you need to fit homesteading into a few hours each weekend and would like to have fun while doing it, these projects will be right up your alley, whether you live on a forty-acre farm, a postage-stamp lawn in suburbia, or a high rise.


takes me to a BUY page with no download option.

Thoughts? Help?

Thanks!
Sandy

S Smithsson wrote:I bought this and am only now getting around to reading them all... everything worked so far except this one:

The Weekend Homesteader: Winter
by Anna Hess

takes me to a BUY page with no download option.

Thoughts? Help?

Hi Sandy,

I see a gift code for this item in your stuff.  

Can you have a look for that?  

You may already know this, but here's how you use gift codes.

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks!  I must be missing something -  I only see this one in My Stuff:

The Weekend Homesteader: Planting Berries.

I searched the page for "winter" and "homestead"  and only found that one result.

Sandy

S Smithsson wrote:Thanks!  I must be missing something -  I only see this one in My Stuff:

The Weekend Homesteader: Planting Berries.

I searched the page for "winter" and "homestead"  and only found that one result.

Sandy

Is it possible that you're looking at things you own instead of gifts you manage?

Beau M. Davidson wrote:

S Smithsson wrote:Thanks!  I must be missing something -  I only see this one in My Stuff:

The Weekend Homesteader: Planting Berries.

I searched the page for "winter" and "homestead"  and only found that one result.

Sandy

Is it possible that you're looking at things you own instead of gifts you manage?

Yes, not only is it possible it is certain!  Thanks for your help! Maybe I should start giving some of those gifts away!

Sandy