Nowadays, users expect their applications to remain up-to-date. Outside the walled gardens, vendors use a multitude of update systems with different security properties – an average desktop computer contains over 20 separate update mechanisms from as many vendors.

We here analyze a number of ways to deliver updates and show why, as a developer, your next update system should be based on The Update Framework, and, as an end user, you should demand it from your vendor.

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Specific rules apply for business-to-consumer (B2C) supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically supplied services (TBE) in the EU. Since 2015, the general rule is that VAT is due in the location where the services are actually used, and EU directives and regulations detail the information that can be used to find out the location (see this overview).

It turns out that, even with the data in hand, it is not that trivial to determine the location of supply and applicable tax in a legally admissible way. This post shows how we do it.

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EU VAT location of supply and invoicing rules require that certain data be captured and saved for legal reasons (see this overview). The precise requirements depend on the location and the transaction amount, and the pricing itself changes too (different currencies and potentially exclusion from EU VAT or other local taxes), so there is some sort of recursion at play.

You can cut the Gordian Knot by proceeding in a specific order so as to improve UX while making sure you get everything you need (including the all-important payment information handled by Stripe).

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