So legally minimizing a tax bill by selecting an optimum location and passing some of that advantage onto customers (one of the reasons Amazon is popular) is 'taking the piss'?
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Shipping from warehouses in the UK to UK consumers whilst completely sidestepping UK VAT charges is taking the piss.
Pretty sure they pay UK VAT on physical goods. This article is referring to the changes in VAT for digital goods.
By the way, physical books are vat-free in the UK (presumably because it is seen as a good thing to encourage people to read), whereas e-books have always been standard VAT in the UK, making e-books less competitive.
Shipping books from UK warehouses to UK customers means that they're paying the 0% VAT that UK is currently requiring for physical books.
The only question is about e-books, which are sent to UK customers by a USA company from datacenters most likely in Ireland or Germany. You could argue that UK VAT should be paid whenever an UK customer buys a digital item from abroad, but it's a bit different argument than your post is making now.
is the full VAT tax displayed on the bill for all items purchased? Not being a member of EU or related I do not know how the amount of taxation is conveyed to the buyer so I am a bit curious
Advertised prices include VAT for all goods and services aimed at people. The price without VAT isn't usually shown. Goods and services aimed at businesses show prices excluding VAT (since the business doesn't pay it), but they make this clear. International shoppers might see the no-VAT prices on websites, I'm not sure.
This applies to websites and shops. Europeans will often be surprised in American shops that the tax is added on afterwards — I've had the exact change ready and been caught by this.
The line before "Total" on a receipt shows the amount of VAT paid. Many shops will "*" any items had different rates (things like basic food).
For my purchases from Amazon UK to EU-not-UK (where books are charged VAT) the bill information clearly shows the total before VAT, VAT and the final total.
I'm rather sure that it's mandatory. The thing that sucks is that the VAT-included price is visible only at the end of checkout, which is different than everything else - local stores and web-stores are required to advertise only tax-included prices. Possibly it's because the "same customer" may get different tax rates depending on where I choose to ship the item.