Any UK based VAT registered affiliates around?
 

hi

i've been vat registered for a couple of years but i'm no longer with my old accountant and can't get hold of her anymoree. if you are vat registered and an affiliate i.e. just generating traffic and sending to affiliate programs how do you describe your activities to the vat man? it's just i obviously don't charge vat to US based programs but don't want to get stung with a huge vat bill if i say the wrong thing.

any advice appreciated, thanks.

come and live in France - they passed legislation earlier this year that for things like this, no tax declaration is needed :pimp

nope, but check my sig for a great sponsor to help you make that cash to pay that VAT!

roly, can u drop your email addy here? i wanted to ask you something
tks

roly - correct me if I'm wrong (assuming there has been no change in VAT since I last dealt with it) - VAT is not payable on revenue generated from external sources. It may be chargable within the UK/EU, but not elsewhere.

Basically earnings resulting from affiliate marketing are commission payments.

That is one view on it. Different people have had different rulings from their tax offices on this. Probably down to the way things were explained to the tax office and their interpretation of it.

Nothing is a surprise there Scotty - clueless :winkwink:

Does depend if there has been some recent changes - but can't see even if there was, - can't see it would make any difference since revenue from a company/sponsor who is not UK based and not a UK unregistered VAT trader cannot legally charge UK VAT.

In many ways it is similar to importing cartons of product - there is no VAT charged by, eg.. a Hong Kong manufacturer and therefore no input VAT. (Tho a VAT registered trader has the obligation to charge whatever rate on the sale of these products.)

Done this same stuff with serveral UK companies (all in differing VAT areas) and always the same. One thing to note - never ask a VAT inspector - they are totally clueless with a preoccupation over adding up figures (even computer generated figures to make sure the computer is correct :)) - better to confirm with your accountant.

sounds good :) but how can that be? if that was the case i could buy a cheap place in france and commute i live on the south coast about 6 miles from the ferry. lol when you say no tax declaration is needed does that mean you don't have to pay tax on earnings at all?

i'm going to bed now but you can icq me on 152772434 (i'll be on invisible) and i'll get back to you tomorrow, or alternatively leave your address and i'll contact you.

hi webby thanks for your reply. i know what your saying is obvious but i can remember at the time my accoutant sayinf that she had dealt with other cases like mine and it wasn't allways clear cut, like scotty is saying.

yeah that is exactly what i was told different rulings from different offices. are you vat registered? and if so what have you said?

i could be selling a service (marketing) or a product (traffic) or i could describe it as a number of other things but i want to make sure i don't say the wrong thing and get a bill for 2-3 years vat they think i should have been charging.

I'll ICQ you tomorrow. I know of an accountant that knows how to get the ruling that you are looking for :)

[squishypimpmode]Good luck with the tax man :) [/squishypimpmode]

My original post misunderstood the original request, which was asking about VAT. But, yes. If your earnings are based on non-tangiable non-French internet services, then no income tax declaration is needed. So host a paysite in the USA aimed at the non-French market (ie in English) and you're income tax free.

Just sent ICQ request Roly :)

Be sure to say the correct thing, what you should say depends on the person that read your documents, we have the same issues in DK :(
There is a few danes that have been in court cases lasting so far up to 2-3 years and have not yet been resolved, so it isnt really a easy thing to figure out :warning
When I had my inspection I told them to go away and to bother someone else, mayby put a little nicer together. I told them sites and billing was done by US companies, I dont charge VAT from US companies, if they belived there should be charged VAT from "members" they should contact the affiliate programs to ask about that as that was really none of my business what they did.