Vat No.

sjh101

Hello, I am an employee who earns a regular monthly salary, but I want to earn a bit more on the side with affiliate marketing. 

I need to create a VAT number inorder to do this. What's the best way to do it? Is it the GOV.UK website? 

Also, is there anything I need to be aware of once I do register and start earning extra, I.e will it affect my salary at my current employment? I've never registered for VAT with a vat no. so it's all new to me. 

Thanks 

DullGreyGuy

Why do you need a VAT number? 

If you really want to do it you can do voluntary VAT registration online at gov.uk but then the revenues you generate will be net + VAT and the VAT component has to be paid to HMRC. 

It'll have no impact on any employee income.

sjh101

Hi. The platform asks for  VAT no. Inorder to be paid out. I was a little sceptical, but I've done my research and its a reputable affiliate site. 

The voluntary tax thing seems like more effort, but I'll look into it. Thanks for responding. 

Jeremy535897

Sometimes you have to complete a field that asks for a VAT number, but if you dig into things a bit deeper you may find that for non-VAT registered businesses you just have to enter a row of 9s or Xs or something. VAT voluntary registration means lots of extra administration, including digital records, and can only benefit you if your customers are VAT registered and you have input VAT on costs.

DullGreyGuy

sjh101 said:

Hi. The platform asks for  VAT no. Inorder to be paid out. I was a little sceptical, but I've done my research and its a reputable affiliate site. 

The voluntary tax thing seems like more effort, but I'll look into it. Thanks for responding. 

Are you sure it isnt an optional field? Some companies do insist they'll only deal with other VAT registered entities but its the exception not the rule.

I used to do affiliate marketing and wasnt VAT registered so plenty of platforms out there dont require it (or didnt).

Which platform?

sjh101

Yeah, it won't let me proceed without filling it in. The two I use at the minute are digistore24, which is the one asking for VAT no. and clickbank. 

sjh101

Jeremy535897 said:

Sometimes you have to complete a field that asks for a VAT number, but if you dig into things a bit deeper you may find that for non-VAT registered businesses you just have to enter a row of 9s or Xs or something. VAT voluntary registration means lots of extra administration, including digital records, and can only benefit you if your customers are VAT registered and you have input VAT on costs.

Thanks for the info on that. Yeah, I want it to be as little work as possible to be honest, but just make sure I'm staying within the law. 

sjh101

sjh101 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Sometimes you have to complete a field that asks for a VAT number, but if you dig into things a bit deeper you may find that for non-VAT registered businesses you just have to enter a row of 9s or Xs or something. VAT voluntary registration means lots of extra administration, including digital records, and can only benefit you if your customers are VAT registered and you have input VAT on costs.

Thanks for the info on that. Yeah, I want it to be as little work as possible to be honest, but just make sure I'm staying within the law. 

Also, I tried putting in my NIN but it said please insert a valid VAT no, so I doubt it will let me put random numbers or letters. 

DullGreyGuy

If you look at https://help.digistore24.com/en/articles/1181 it states if you count as a small business you can add your taxID rather than VAT ID. I'd guess in the UK that would be the UTR

Jeremy535897

I think it is a lot more complicated than you think. Digistore doesn't ask for a VAT number, it asks for a VAT ID. That means registering for VAT in Germany. Registering for VAT in the UK won't help.

Digistore also says it will only deal with companies. I think if you want to deal with them, you need to get in touch with them. They say they have expanded into the UK (see https://help.digistore24.com/en/articles/1330-costs-at-digistore24-in-the-united-kingdom ), but there isn't any more immediately obvious information.