On Aug 4, 2013, at 22:11, John Levine <johnl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > At last week's very successful Berlin meeting, the finances were > thrown of whack by the late discovery that the IETF had to pay 19% > German VAT on the registration fee. At the IAOC session they said > that about half of that is likely to be reclaimed from VAT paid, but > the net amount is still a large number. I don't get it. Given the above, the VAT adjustment is going to cost the IETF ~ 10 % revenue. At the same time, the attendance increased by more than that. What was thrown out of whack, please? Grüße, Carsten PS.: As a European attendee, of course I enjoy the ability to make a VAT claim. In effect, I'm recovering the VAT that IETF paid on goods and services in Berlin, and that is exactly what the concept of VAT is about. Raising the price to maintain net revenue at $650 would be disingenuous, as the VAT recovered by the IETF is an additional source of income to the IETF on top of that net revenue.