To be honest, I never thought that I would have to revive my Payhip shop even after switching to WooCommerce.

I love Payhip, and I still do recommend Payhip to those who are just starting out.

But the thing about Payhip is that it doesn’t have integration with many POD services, particularly Lulu and Printful.

Sure, I can connect Lulu to my Payhip shop if I want to, using the API.

But who wants to do that when there’s a simpler way to offer print books on your own website, right?

Thus, I switched to WooCommerce since it has direct integration with Lulu; no manual API connection is required.

So, what is it that causes me to come back to Payhip, anyway?

Is it because it’s way too complicated for me, to the point where it wrecks me inside-out?

Of course, the answer is no.

If anything, my reason to revive my Payhip store has nothing to do with WooCommerce’s complexity at all.

What got me to come back to my Payhip shop

So, what is it that got me to return to Payhip if it’s not because of WooCommerce’s technical hoopla?

Believe it or not, my reason for reviving my Payhip store has to do with the dreaded UK and Europe VAT.

Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to use WooCommerce alone to handle the VAT since the VAT rate for the UK is 0%.

But the VAT for Europe is a different ball of game altogether.

Instead of charging VAT based on where you’re from, you have to charge VAT based on where your customers are coming from.

You can guess how much of a messy ordeal it is when you have to deal with multiple VAT rates.

And that’s just the ebook alone, mind you.

Imagine when you want to sell audiobooks or any digital products, for that matter, to those who reside in the UK and Europe.

The VAT rate in the UK is 20% on audiobooks and other digital products.

As someone who tries to cater to people regardless of where they’re from, I can just encourage them to buy my books on the retailers’ websites.

Or I can redirect them to my Payhip store, in which Payhip will become my Merchant of Record for the sales tax collection.

That settles the UK and Europe VAT for digital products.

As for the print books, the VAT is not an issue here since Lulu has printing facilities in the UK and Europe.

While I will still be subject to the Europe VAT, I’m fine with covering the VAT for anyone who buys print books directly from me.

But I have no way to do that for handling the VAT for ebooks.

Thus, the more reason for me to use Payhip so that they become my Merchant of Record.

Why two different stores on two different platforms?

Some of you may find my approach to be puzzling and impractical, to say the least.

Why do I need to use Payhip when WooCommerce can do just that?

Shouldn’t WooCommerce be able to handle sales tax collection just fine like Payhip?

Well, you’re right.

Sales tax plugins such as WooCommerce Tax can automatically calculate how much sales tax you should collect by city, state, and country during checkout.

So, what is it that makes Payhip necessary in my setup when there are WooCommerce plugins that can do just that?

If anything, it’s more to do with the tax filing.

Yes, sales tax plugins such as WooCommerce Tax and TaxJar make sales tax calculation easier.

But you will have to file the tax yourself, though.

Maybe it’s not a big deal if you already register with the tax authority in your state or country.

But if you’re not based in Europe and you want to sell your wares to the European market?

Well, you will have to register your business with the EU One-Stop Shop (OSS) and do the tax filing quarterly, even if you only sell one book throughout the whole quarter.

You can register with the OSS for tax compliance if you do generate a lot of sales from Europe.

Or you can use a platform that handles the VAT for you so that you can focus on something that is far more fun and crucial in your business.

And that platform is Payhip, or Curios for something similar.

While I do have my books available for purchase on Curios, I prefer Payhip since it works more like a storefront, unlike Curios, which is a marketplace.

Didn’t you need to collect the US sales tax as well?

Some of you may find it strange that I seem to worry a lot more about UK and Europe VAT than the US sales tax.

The reason for that is simple – I should only worry about it if I exceed the economic nexus for that state.

Considering that I don’t live in the US and my books are pretty niche, it’s unlikely that I will exceed the economic nexus anywhere in the US.

If anything, it’s more likely that my sales are widely spread all over the US instead of concentrated in one state alone.

It’s different from the UK and Europe VAT, where I will have to collect VAT and do the tax filing regardless of whether I exceed the economic nexus or not.

Thankfully, the threshold for UK VAT is pretty high, which is still unlikely for me to exceed the threshold.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case with Europe, though.

Whether I exceed the threshold or not, I will still need to collect VAT and do the tax filing.

It’s because of this reason that I’m opting for Payhip since they will handle the VAT on my behalf.

Do you need the same setup as I do?

Now that you know my reason for wanting to revive my Payhip store, should you do the same, too, if you’re like me who uses WooCommerce to sell direct?

The short answer is no.

Just pick whichever platform that works best for your situation and use it to sell direct.

You don’t need to use two different platforms just to deal with sales tax, be it the US sales tax and the UK and Europe VAT.

The only reason you need two different platforms to sell direct is that you do want to sell direct to the European market but you don’t have any means to deal with the VAT.

Or you’re like me, who wants something simpler, since we all know dealing with sales tax of any kind is no fun at all.

Will I be moving away from using Payhip to handle the UK and European sales?

It’s hard to say since I don’t know what the future holds for me.

But if this sort of arrangement works in my author business, then I have no reason to change what’s already working for me.

The only reason why I have to move away from using Payhip is that they can no longer become my Merchant of Record for the UK and Europe VAT.

Or the worst part of all, they’re shutting down.

If it does happen, then perhaps I will have to go all in with Curios, considering it’s another platform that handles all kinds of sales tax for you, not just VAT.

But for now, I’ll be relying on Payhip to handle VAT for me.

And I’m fine with that.