Remove GB from vat-rates.json

[digilist]

GB is no longer part of the EU.

closes #8

[digilist]

Just noticed that it should not be removed maybe, to keep the old VAT rate and to be able to get it for a specific date. Therefore, I added a "0-entry" from 2021-01-01.

[digilist]

Any change to get this merged? 😊

[dannyvankooten]

Hey @digilist,

I'd like to but last I looked into this I got kind of confused by the international laws about VAT for UK... For me (Dutch business entity) they want me to register separately and keep on paying VAT, the same rate as before Brexit. Therefore I'm torn on merging this as I have no clue what the laws are for other EU countries or what users of this library are doing...

[Mark-H]

It's tricky as the library originally provided rates for EU member states, and as the UK no longer is a member state, it would make sense to get rid of it.

But like you also say the UK is requiring EU businesses to continue charging taxes at the same rate, so removing it would mean implementers need to change where they get that rate from... keeping it in here would be nice. But is that then reason to also start accepting rates for other third countries?

There's probably no right answer but I'd personally suggest keeping it in and updated, with clarification in the docs that it's not just EU member states and should not be used to verify if a country is in the EU, just to get the current rates from EU member states + GB. And perhaps eventually allow the scope of the library to also cover other countries in Europe that are not in the EU (Switzerland, Norway). Perhaps expand the structure with an is_european_union flag if it goes down that path, so clients can filter if they want..

[digilist]

You are right, that are indeed good reasons to not merge these changes. My company doesn't need to handle VAT for UK because it is below the VAT threshold (https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register). But you are right, there are other companies that are still required to pay VAT and use this library and that makes it complicated. 😕

[gajosadrian]

I don't see any sense to limit this package to EU countries only... why even so? I Believe VAT ID is still same for GB and won't change.