It’s my birthday today. 40. Huh?! Where did the time go? Happy birthday to me. :-D As this post goes live, Tony and I will be tucking into the leftovers of that cake he made for me on Sunday. Early birthday fun with Tony’s family. And tomorrow I’m off to Denmark for a few days to visit my family, so that means I’ll have another birthday with family and friends in Denmark. Not too shabby. ;-)
I have something else to celebrate. I’ve written about all the EU VAT fun before. It has had a big impact on my bizniz, and not in a positive way. But I’ve figured out a way to offer my patterns and ebooks via my own site again – I haven’t been able to do that since January 1, 2015! I’m super happy about this!!
If you like, you can read more below about why I’ve not been able to do this and how it will work from now on.
Confetti and balloons for Polka & Bloom!
To celebrate my birthday and the happy news for my shop, you can go stock up on patterns and ebooks with 40% off until Sunday, May 1. Use this code: BALLOONS. Only valid for patterns and ebooks. EU/UK customers – Rest of the world customers.
You can also use this code in my Etsy and Payhip shops, but only until Friday, April 29. But bear in mind that you will be charged VAT in the Etsy/Payhip shops if you are in the EU/UK.
AND there’s more! The Polka & Bloom shop has moved to polkaandbloom.com (it was shop.polkaandbloom.com before). I’ve also moved the shop to be run on a WordPress site because I got fed up with hand coding all the pages. So I’m still tinkering with the design as I learn how to use WordPress properly. But there’s a working shop and that is very satisfying. It looks ok, and it works on mobile and tablet. :-)
A photo of Blake for no particular reason. I swear he gets cuter every day. ;-)
The EU VAT funtimes
If you’ve followed Polka & Bloom for a while, you may remember that I’ve talked about the incredibly frustrating EU VAT law that came into force on January 1st, 2015.
In a nutshell, since the start of 2015, I’ve not been able to offer ebooks and digital patterns on my own site because it would mean a LOT of confusing dealing with VAT. Seriously, the different countries interpret things differently and some countries don’t even know what to do about small businesses like Polka &Bloom.
So much frustration and confusion over the past year and a bit. Tears. Swear words.
The dumb law hasn’t gone away, sadly. BUT. I have finally figured out a way to use the shop on my own site to offer patterns and ebooks. YAY!
I have basically had to manually copy all the pattern and ebook items to a separate section for EU/UK customers. Not a glamorous job at all!
EU/UK customers will now be able to buy patterns and ebooks without paying the current VAT rate in their country for digital products. However, these items will be delivered by email and not a direct download. Because that dumb EU law says that some human intervention has to take place for the purchase to be exempt from VAT.
Super annoying, I know. But by doing it this way, EU/UK save money (almost 30% VAT in some countries!) and I save a lot of hazzle.
