Google now class my blog as a business, any ideas why?

rogerball0

rogerball0

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Got an email from the drones at google today, can anyone enlighten me?, I know its getting quite a few hits around the world but I dont know why it would be classed as a business and in true google fashion its almost impossible to find a way of contacting them.

Here's the email:

> Hello,
>
> We're writing to let you know about a change to Domain Registration that
> will affect your account for http://agentlemansyacht.com/. We will be changing
> your tax setting in Domain Registration to "business" from its existing
> setting of "personal" in the next few weeks. After this change, we won't
> add VAT to your Domain Registration charges, and you'll be responsible for
> determining taxes due in your country if you're not an Irish customer. If
> you are an Irish customer, you will still be charged VAT.
>
> A "business" tax setting means that your Domain Registration account is
> used for commercial purposes. We believe that your account is a business
> account, which includes corporates, affiliates, sole traders, self-employed
> merchants or professionals, and partnerships.
>
> If you are using Domain Registration for non-business reasons, then you
> will be allowed to sign up again as non-business account. We will send
> another communication with details about how to sign up again.
> Sincerely,
> *The Google Apps Team*
>
> Google Ireland Ltd.
> Gordon House
> Barrow Street (c) 2014 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain


 
While I'm not a fan of VAT evasion I'd just stay quiet and accept the cheaper fee.. Can't see HNRC chasing you for it and if they did its googles fault they should gave charged it and let you reclaim it if you were a business and elligable.
 
ShinyShoe said:
While I'm not a fan of VAT evasion I'd just stay quiet and accept the cheaper fee.. Can't see HNRC chasing you for it and if they did its googles fault they should gave charged it and let you reclaim it if you were a business and elligable.
Click to expand...

That was more the reason for posting the question as i don't want anything to ruffle their (HMRC's) feathers. The experience i endured during a two year investigation against me resulted in a four stone loss in weight, my job and almost my mental health.

There's horrible and then there's HMRC!
 
rogerball0 said:
That was more the reason for posting the question as i don't want anything to ruffle their (HMRC's) feathers. The experience i endured during a two year investigation against me resulted in a four stone loss in weight, my job and almost my mental health.

There's horrible and then there's HMRC!
Click to expand...

But if they send you a letter saying we think you owe us VAT you call them up, say should you not have been charged that on the sale and if they say you still owe it you say how much would you like the cheque made out for...
 
The op is not responsible for the VAT, google is. Ie. If google don't charge him vat, then none is due from him... Otoh google might be hauled up for not returning the vat due to the vat man... As a individual you pay what your charged by the company... And they then account for any vat due from that amount.

The op should note that this missive from google does not have any impact on his status in the uk... It's not a email from the HMRC, it's a missive from a private company. There is no mechanism that I'm awqre of for HMRC to audit a individuals vat contributions, Neither is there a mechanism for HMRC to receive payment of vat from individuals, or charge individuals for vat unpaid or otherwise on services provided in the uk... As the individual is not VAT registered they hold no liability for VAT payment to HMRC.... Vat liability for private individuals is always to the vendor of the goods and services... And may or may not be accompanied by a vat invoice.. And it is the vendor who bears the liability to HMRC... Depending of course on the vendors jurisdiction.

If importing goods then vat may be liable at the point of import.... But as this is a service provided in the uk then I can't see any mechanism whereby HMRC would be able to come to you and demand vat.... As you have not provided google with a valid EU VAT registration number then they are not in a position to NOT charge you the Vat element of the sale...

For google to not charge you the vat they need to have your VAT registration number on file...

So, just ignore it and pay their invoice.

It's their problem.
 
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ShinyShoe said:
But if they send you a letter saying we think you owe us VAT you call them up, say should you not have been charged that on the sale and if they say you still owe it you say how much would you like the cheque made out for...
Click to expand...

Yes that was the rock i perished on; i argued instead of settling and hence began a 20+ month nightmare, I argued bitterly the contested amount - the figure was just ridiculous they said i owed - it bore no relation to what i earned and the lifestyle i lived. The day they sent two inspectors round to my house i had no idea they were coming, they spent 20 mins walking round the Centaur with clipboards when it was in the front garden then took themselves off round my property (this was before i put gates on the drive) and then looked at my van (a sprinter) which has a three pointed star on it and decided there and then (IMO) that i was obviously some 'super-rich' builder evading tax.

Interestingly they 'accused' me of writing for PBO amongst other crimes and would look into undeclared earnings from that as well as a host properties i apparently owned up and down the country - it was all proved pure fantasy on their part. I understand from chatting to my accountant they'd have put my name into the system and it will throw up every Roger Ball in the country, and then they would join the dots, bloody ridiculous as that took up the best part of a year having to prove i wasn't a property magnate, a published author and what was the other one - i think it was a Jewellery dealer based in London even though i live in Ringwood! There were many more accusations - some very criminal actually come to think of it damn right libellous!

It was all very James Bond who they'd conjured me up to be as at the time i was working as a carpenter on social housing in Dorset.

It all got very personal and took so much time i actually jacked-in a work contract to concentrate on my investigation. I sort out an accountant to help extricate me from the mess after getting seriously ill through the stress of it all whose 'help' ran into many thousands of pounds plus a fine plus lost earnings dealing with it all and then the disputed amount of 'unpaid' tax pretty much cleaned me out (and in more ways than one)............oh yeah and then six months later (early 2008) the recession hit!

So whenever anything comes up regarding HMRC, i get a kind of Captain Darling / Chief Inspector Dreyfus nervous twitch, my gut instantly tightens and i'm having monster flashbacks of the myriad meetings i had with those condescending, moralising, little............well - you know.

P.S I would've liked to have used alot more 'salty' language describing the above as even now some seven years on it still grates on me especially when you hear boy george letting the likes of Vodafone et al off the hook for many billions in corporation tax.

P.P.S And thats why project Centaur has ground me down as its hobbled along at a glacial pace; all the money i'd saved & put aside for it went to HMRC.

A lesson learned - never argue with them!
 
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