Paintball.de has been one of the best-known retailers on the paintball scene for nearly 30 years. Starting as a conventional mail-order business with a retail store in Düsseldorf, the online shop secured the website domain in the mid-1990s. Since then, it has been one of the first movers for paintball markers and equipment. After testing various shop and merchandise systems, the company joined forces with Plentymarkets 10 years ago. More recently, Paintball.de started reaping the additional benefits of working with eClear. The paintball pure player uses the eClear VATRules solution to manage the correct VAT rates for sales in EU countries.
„Given the situation’s complexity, merchants need a competent partner who is familiar with the issues across Europe and capable of providing the right solutions. eClear is positioned as one of the first companies in this field and has successfully shown which solutions lead to more efficiency and optimization for retailers.“
The eClear VATRules product now provides the current EU tax rates for all Paintball.de products. This fully automatic system runs via a plugin integrated into the company’s Plentymarkets e-commerce ERP system. The EU VAT reform that has been in force since July 1, 2021, makes Paintball.de liable for VAT in all EU Member States. VATRules supports Paintball.de by retrieving the correct tax rates for all countries and adding the amount to the selected sales items. Paintball products are subject to different regulations in different countries, leading to a highly complex situation. VATRules simplifies the allocation of tax rates and makes things a lot easier for merchants. The 12-member Paintball.de team is planning to expand the shop and make it more international in scale. So far, the company’s core business is focused on Germany. Still, the paintball accessories and replacement parts are shipped throughout Europe and to the USA.
Five years ago, Paintball.de partnered with Planet Eclipse, a globally active market leader in high-end paintball markers. Paintball.de is now the exclusive supplier of historical Planet Eclipse replacement parts and distributes these products primarily in the EU but also in the USA and Canada. This means that Paintball.de is not only represented in Europe, but worldwide. The EU reform on July 1 will fundamentally change the established processes. “I am excited to see how things develop. We are moving step by step towards EU reform and, with the support of eClear, preparing for the upcoming changes in the best possible way,” says Westerfeld. “We are working with eClear as our partner for all tax obligations and issues. We’re grateful for their clarification and technical solutions in this area.”
