The first month of 2014 flew by, actually, which means we’ve now ended up in February and it’s time for another community update!
As always, if you have any news to report for this update, please PM @CommunityRoundup at LowEndTalk.com to share it.
EU VAT Rules
The biggest thing that happened this month must have been the new EU VAT rules. While the nice women and gentlemen of the European Parliament are settling down in the soft leather in Brussels again, after a well-deserved holiday, most hosts have to work overtime to comply with these new laws that will make the EU a better place.
In the past, a hosting company doing business in the EU had to charge the VAT tariff of the country the company resided in and charge it to everyone from their own country and those inside the EU without a valid VAT ID. With this new law, they have to charge the VAT tariff of the country the customers reside in an pay those taxes to that country’s tax authorities. So, instead of one VAT administration and one VAT number, they now need 28.
Hannah’s Bananas is a great analogy that will probably make you understand the insanity of these rules better, so please read that here.
Non-EU based companies also have to comply with these rules and the first non-US company I have seen doing so recently was RamNode (kudos for you, Nick; we all know it’s a pain). I’m really curious where we’re heading with these new rules and if changes to make it easier are up ahead, but I really doubt it.
New cluster for LEB and LET
The guys at ColoCrossing have been working hard to create a new, faster, and more stable cluster to host LowEndBox and LowEndTalk. The old cluster had a setup that made it unstable at certain times and it didn’t always handle DDoS attacks very well. Those are days of the past now.
In addition to the new cluster, LowEndBox and LowEndTalk now also benefit from the new RioRey equipment ColoCrossing has purchased. RioRay makes top-of-the-line Anti-DDoS equipment and it pleases me to say both these sites are protected by their equipment.
Service providers
Recently a number of “service providers” have popped up who have been offering handy tools as Software as a Service. Examples are MXRoute and CloudCommando.
MXRoute offers hosted e-mail based on VestaCP and has recently added OwnCloud to all e-mail accounts, enabling you to also manage your calendar, address book, and plenty more for your domain(s). Needless to say this is a great addition to what was already a fantastic service.
CloudCommando offers hosted Observium, hosted Piwik, and hosted GitLab. All packages include a free 1-year wildcard SSL certificate! I’ve heard plenty of good feedback about these services and starting at $5/year it’s an absolute steal. Read more about these offers right here.
New providers
January also saw the introduction of yet another load of new providers to LowEndBox, something I’d like to continue if possible. Here’s the full list in case you’ve missed some:
- How to Rapidly Install Java, OpenJDK & Oracle JDK on your VPS - December 14, 2015
- It’s been a great ride - December 14, 2015
- Cheap Windows VPS – $21/quarter 1GB KVM-based Windows VPS in 11 worldwide locations - November 30, 2015
Um… 2014? I guess it’s a typo. Or something else??
It’s 2015, not 2014 :)
Ooops!
RamNode is not a non-U.S. company, I guess you meant non-EU? Although the U.S. part may matter a bit too.
Yeah he probably meant non-EU heh
Whoops, yes, that’s what I get from being overloaded with work :-/
I don’t get why & how a non-EU company does/can comply with the new EU VAT rules. Can you englighten us?
How come the site still uses cloudflare if in house protection is ready?
That’s for the DNS records :-)
That is not true and doesn’t even make sense even if it was. They are still using CF for filtering. :-)
Thanks for the mention for MXroute!!
Mxroute is new? I thought you have been around for over a year now.
We ask for more offers of hudsonvalleyhost
why???
just choose 123system, cvs, gvh, bluevm or any other cheap host from colocrossing for that service!
Nice read.
The UK Gov have provided a service for businesses to file VAT returns for EU membering states online called VAT Mini One Stop Shop. You must be a registered business inside the UK to apply.
https://www.gov.uk/register-and-use-the-vat-mini-one-stop-shop
That makes it easy to file VAT. The hardest and most troubling part I guess will be companies keeping track of VAT for each EU state and filing returns correctly.
As well as implementing these tax rules into their billing systems based on a clients country of residence. Especially if they are using uncommon billing systems.
more offer hudsonvalleyhost/month