Value Added Tax (VAT) in Marketplace

 

Hi there,

We are selling products into the MQL5 market.  As an EU VAT registered company, what does MetaQuotes do about charging VAT to end users?  Does it collect the appropriate sales taxes?

I cannot see any mention of VAT anywhere?

Any idea what to do about this?

Regards,

Mike

 
Michael Challis:

Hi there,

We are selling products into the MQL5 market.  As an EU VAT registered company, what does MetaQuotes do about charging VAT to end users?  Does it collect the appropriate sales taxes?

I cannot see any mention of VAT anywhere?

Any idea what to do about this?

Regards,

Mike

A partial answer can be found here:

https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/1211/page5#comment_1900890 

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Ovo Cz:

A partial answer can be found here:

https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/1211/page5#comment_1900890 

Being in the EU is supposed to make doing business easy, but I have found it the total opposite!  Everything is there to prevent business from operating, total red tape at every turn.

For selling in the market place, since MQL5 do not disclose anything about which buyers bought what at what price and where they are, I am going to treat it as a B2B service, with MQL5 being a Cyprus registered company.

 
Michael Challis:

Being in the EU is supposed to make doing business easy, but I have found it the total opposite!  Everything is there to prevent business from operating, total red tape at every turn.

For selling in the market place, since MQL5 do not disclose anything about which buyers bought what at what price and where they are, I am going to treat it as a B2B service, with MQL5 being a Cyprus registered company.

 Cool, I did not realize that it could be so simple. Let's report the MQ as the VAT applicable counterpart.

 
Michael Challis:

Being in the EU is supposed to make doing business easy, but I have found it the total opposite!  Everything is there to prevent business from operating, total red tape at every turn.

For selling in the market place, since MQL5 do not disclose anything about which buyers bought what at what price and where they are, I am going to treat it as a B2B service, with MQL5 being a Cyprus registered company.

And what is Metaquotes VAT number ?
 
Alain Verleyen:
And what is Metaquotes VAT number ?
They, rather suprisingly, say they do not have VAT number...But they are registered in Cyprus as a Cyprus company (in EU) and don't have a VAT number...
 
Michael Challis:
They, rather suprisingly, say they do not have VAT number...But they are registered in Cyprus as a Cyprus company (in EU) and don't have a VAT number...
That's really weird. In Belgium (at least), for a B2B invoice you need a counterparty VAT number otherwise your invoice is not valid. I am invoicing to Metaquotes Australia
 

I asked Metaquotes about the same thing. They also answered that if you take a freelance job then you make an agreement not with metaquotes but with employer who hires you to do the job.

The interesting part is that you dont know if the employer is a company or private person, you dont know where is his country of residence. Basicaly you dont know anything about who are you dealing with.

So according to VAT rules, if you can't specify if you work for company then you have to pay vat tax by your own. Just like it would be any private person who you work for.

Alain the solution that you proposed sounds partialy good - especialy when you look at your "payments" list, there is no list of your customers, just everywhere you can see "INTERNAL ACCOUNTANT"

so this suggest that Metaquotes is the one who hires and pays you - so in that case it would be ok. But when you speak with Metaquotes support they say opposite. Invoicing Metaquotes Australia

in that terms will have simiar effect as invoicing mr John Smith from Greenland.

 
Bartlomiej Gorski:

I asked Metaquotes about the same thing. They also answered that if you take a freelance job then you make an agreement not with metaquotes but with employer who hires you to do the job.

The interesting part is that you dont know if the employer is a company or private person, you dont know where is his country of residence. Basicaly you dont know anything about who are you dealing with.

So according to VAT rules, if you can't specify if you work for company then you have to pay vat tax by your own. Just like it would be any private person who you work for.

Alain the solution that you proposed sounds partialy good - especialy when you look at your "payments" list, there is no list of your customers, just everywhere you can see "INTERNAL ACCOUNTANT"

so this suggest that Metaquotes is the one who hires and pays you - so in that case it would be ok. But when you speak with Metaquotes support they say opposite. Invoicing Metaquotes Australia

in that terms will have simiar effect as invoicing mr John Smith from Greenland.

My view on this so far is that the company I work for has a business to business contract with MQL5 limited.  Who they sell to is completely invisible to our company.  All the evidence points to MQL5 appearing on the payment processing details to end customers.  My company does not appear to any end customer and does not handle refunds or disputes.  MQL5 Limited are based in Cyprus.  These are the distance selling VAT thresholds for B2B EU transactions:

http://www.vatlive.com/eu-vat-rules/distance-selling-eu-vat-thresholds/

Therefore I will subtract the VAT at our location and this will appear on our company VAT returns.  Our company is not selling to consumers, MQL5 is.

 

Michael, that sounds quite logical to me. But I've been through different situations with tax-offices in past days, and from experience I will say that sometimes things that sounds logical have nothing to do with tax rules :) or tax interpretation by the tax-office.

How do you want to set 0 VAT if Metaquotes doesnt have VAT number in Cyprus? Invoice for Metaquotes Australia? :)

 
Bartlomiej Gorski:

Michael, that sounds quite logical to me. But I've been through different situations with tax-offices in past days, and from experience I will say that sometimes things that sounds logical have nothing to do with tax rules :) or tax interpretation by the tax-office.

How do you want to set 0 VAT if Metaquotes doesnt have VAT number in Cyprus? Invoice for Metaquotes Australia? :)

Yeah that's my concern too. Better to be sure, and it's still quite confusing.