Why does Dropbox charge VAT to Turkish customers?

[hrnsmv]

Hello,

I just realized that Dropbox is charging VAT to Turkish customers. I have a dropbox plus account and I have been charged VAT on my annual subscription. Since Dropbox is not a legal tax entitiy in Turkey, They are not paying the VATs collected from customers to the Turkish Government. This basically means that Dropbox is pocketing the VAT paid by the customers. This is an illegal surcharge. I asked to be reimbursed but they declined. Since they are not a registered tax entity in Turkey, the invoice that they provide has no legal value in Turkish tax authority which means that I can't get tax reduction either. This is fraud. 

[Hannah]

Hey @hrnsmv, thanks for reaching out to us.

While I understand where you're coming from, please note that Dropbox collects and remits tax on transactions when required to do so.

Since our Plus plan is a product for personal use and not a business product, we are obliged to charge tax on it in certain areas.

If you’re within a jurisdiction where you’re required to pay taxes, you’ll see the tax as a line item on your billing invoices and receipts.

I will, however, pass your feedback about this to our team.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[hrnsmv]

the fact that you are required to collect tax is not a legal explanation of my question. Yes you collect the tax but you do not submit it to the relevant tax authority. Turkish Tax authority in this case. Because if you were submitting them to turkey your purchase invoice would be a legal invoice with dropboxs' registered Turkish tax information. 

"Since our Plus plan is a product for personal use and not a business product, we are obliged to charge tax on it in certain areas." this has no relevance in the matter. personal or business tax collected and not submitted to the relevant country is fraud.

[Hannah]

I understand your frustration, @hrnsmv, and here's where you can find all the available information regarding tax rates.

That said, from my side, I will make sure to log your comments internally for the awareness of our team.

For account-specific questions, you can get in touch with our team via http://dropbox.com/support. 

Other than that, if there's something else I can check from our side, please let me know.

Thanks again.