Does it matter if they cheat or not? I mean, they need to charge VAT, right? So if they do charge VAT they're doing what they should and customers have nothing to complain about. If they cheat on taxes, that's between them and the government.

Based on your location VAT is automatically added to every purchase if it applies. Can't remember anymore if it gets listed seperatly on the receipt. But I'm certain that I pay more for the same bundle than somebody from the US.

I don't understand IndieGala and VAT. I remember at one point using a VPN to do what I thought was avoiding paying it. Then they brought in IP checks and it became a pain to go through that every time so I stopped.

When I stopped the VPN thing I noticed there was no difference between what I was paying and what the advertised price was. I don't think they do different prices in different regions like BundleStars do for example as my price is always the same as what Rachel puts up in her threads.

Am I paying it or not? If I am then I can only think they must be making less money on my purchases as I'm not paying more for the bundle than someone in the USA does. I don't get it. For what it's worth, on the old Indie Gala site, it registered my address as simply "United States" although that wasn't done to avoid any VAT, they did it automatically - perhaps it's some sort of carry over from that? Not a clue what's going on.

As someone quite familiar with international tax structures and profit-shifting, yes, they do collect and pay the VAT - in Europe.
In europe, the price usually includes the VAT, so you don't see it. The company is responsible for paying it (and will be prosecuted if they dont)
In the US, price shown usually doesn't include tax, which is added at checkout. So 3 euro price tag includes VAT, 3 dollar price tag does not.

However, in the US, a seller of goods is only obligated to collect and remit the tax if they have a connection to the state (e.g. a physical location)
Otherwise, the company does not need to charge sales tax. The customer is obligated to report the aggregate value of such sales and pay the tax directly to the state which, of course, everyone does

After a bit of research, I came to the conclusion that the Indie Gala Store and the part of the site that sells bundles are two separate entities, operated within the same company.

Paypal receipts for bundle purchases report the seller as "INDIEGALA s.r.l.. (business@indiegala.com)", and the displayed price don't include VAT, which will be eventually added later, according to your country:

As a result of application of EU directives VAT will be added to purchases from EU.

Data from my last Paypal receipt as proof:

Partial amount €4.48 EUR
VAT €0.99 EUR
Total €5.47 EUR

If I recall it correctly, it was the Artifex Mundi bundle I purchased during Happy Hour.

Store purchase, on the other hand, identify the seller as "Indiegala s.r.l.. (storebusiness@indiegala.com)", and include VAT in the displayed price.

Where applicable, prices include VAT

VAT tax is paid monthly, based on the amount of sales, and the revenue is deducted from final invoice and wholesale invoice (reduced accordingly). If the seller is located in the EU you always use the rate based on his location (for some years now). They can't just take the VAT cash. For starters, they pay it in advance, when ordering keys from distributors/developers. Secondly, their Tax Office can easily calculate the right amount of revenue from sales invoices and they can fine you. And the fines can be enormous, even if there's only a slight error in tax payments.

Not sure if that still applies ... but in the past I could just avoid paying any VAT by using bitcoins as payment method. Probably a bug,
but it worked for me a couple of times.

Yeah, I mean Indiegala is mostly crap anyway and when I see something for 1 USD and pay OVER 1 EUR for it I feel cheated anyway. Humble Bundle sells at the price they list, how come IndieGala adds it on top?

Do you really think the second biggest video game bundle website on the whole internet, a website who is a registered company in Italy can get away with not paying VAT? lol

IDK... because AFAIK, there are no taxes on it from the USofA. (yet)

How can you not pay it? It felt really suspicious when i bought there i admit. Never buying there again. But still, could be interesting to know.