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Posted Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:34:02 GMT by smallbeans
Hello, I run a website from the UK. The users are all around the world. I monetise my website with a company in Australia (overseas) that specialise in online advertising technology. They have given me a piece of code to put on my website and they show adverts to my users and send me a payment to my UK bank account at the end of each month with the revenue earned from displaying advertisements based on the traffic that my site gets. I do not have an visibility regarding who is placing the adverts or from which country - this is handled by the advertising agency. With regards to the revenue that is generated via the new advertising company, who are based in Australia, I have asked them for guidance regarding UK VAT and they say that they account for Australian VAT on their platform but don't know anything about UK VAT. They are not a UK company. In the past when I used Adsense (Google Ireland), I believe that the revenue from that was not VAT-taxable revenue as they used the "EU reverse charge mechanism". I would like to get confirmation that the revenue earned from the Australian advertising agency is also exempt from VAT, as I believe that this arrangement with the new advertising company would be covered as a digital service "providing advertising space" where I am the supplier (of the advertising space) and they are the customer (providing my website with monetisation via their platform). They deal with the advertising providers, I don't. They deal with the VAT applicable to them in Australia and wherever else they get their advertisements from, I don't. The earnings from this are more than £90k per annum, but if it's not VAT-taxable I take it I don't need to register for VAT? Thank you for your help.
Posted Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:20:45 GMT by HMRC Admin 25 Response
Hi smallbeans,
The Place of Supply Rules will detemine where the place of your supply is deemed to take place.
As you are based in the UK and your business customer is overseas then this should come under the General Rule of Services and would be Outside The Scope of UK VAT.
Please see the guidance below:
Place of supply of services (VAT Notice 741A)
Thank you. 

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