It’s not my problem because I don’t live in those countries, and their citizens are coming to me and purchasing something. It’s analogous to a citizen from Germany coming into my restaurant in Chicago, and then the German government declaring that I owe them taxes. Ridiculous. I’m not going to incur any extra work or cost just because some random other country decides that they deserve a cut.

Ultimately though, it’s not my problem because there’s no enforcement mechanism whatsoever, so I just ignore it. The bureaucracy on the other side of the world can stomp their feet all they want, but unless they have a way to make me pay it, I won’t.

Not likely I guess, but not unheard of to nab you while traveling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41341353

Come on, that has literally nothing to do with a relatively tiny software company failing to collect VAT at another country's whims.

It has everything to do with breaking laws conspicuously enough to get noticed. I’m sure the guy providing encrypted messaging thought he was doing nothing wrong, and I’d tend to agree with him.

Let’s not pretend govts have no tools. A friend once had their bank account seized by the state of California due to a moderate balance after six months.

Again, if you're big enough to end up on their radar AND they have some method of enforcement, then yeah, better be compliant.

Even in that case, it's not like you're going to get suddenly arrested on holiday in the EU with zero advance warning.

I'll just continue to ignore VAT and GDPR, and I expect that there's a 99.999% chance nothing will ever happen.