I was in the final step of buying ManicTime when I was quite surprised to discover, on an ostensibly American site, a line adding French VAT to the total. The price was already a bit high to me, this very unexpected 20% price increase was bad news!

I believe it is the first time I see such an increase, actually. Consumer European prices are usually displayed all taxes included, and as far as I know there is no tax for American inter-state shopping. Intrigued, I actually spent way too much time tracking this piece information down: European VAT for Electronically Supplied Services.

I have two requests and a question:

I feel the sentence "There is (...) no other hidden cost." just under the "Buy Now" button on the Buy Now page is misleading. Granted, a tax is not a hidden cost, but at the very least there should be a mention about VAT to European customers.

There should be an explanation in the FastSpring page, saying that the VAT collected there is indeed sent back to Europe, and that the buyer is freed from any obligations regarding VAT.

I am quite a bit disappointed that despite all this handling of international issues, the billing is still done in USDs, which means I will have to pay several percents of bank fees on top of everything. FastSpring claims they are able to charge in Euros. Why isn't it the case for ManicTime?

Woah, great stuff. That where i purchased just yesterday for the full price inc. VAT :-(