How Brexit affects EU VAT for UK Fiverr sellers post 2020

[stevieleetheani]

Hi,

This is a post to help clarify some of the issues regarding EU VAT for Fiverr sellers from the UK.

Full disclosure, I am not an accountant, or a British government public servant, employed by Fiverr or in anyway qualified to give legal or financial advice. I’m just a freelance animator based in the UK who happens to have some insight on the above matter.

So for those who are not based in the UK, this post may not be of any use to you but for those who are, hopefully you’ll find some clarity on the matter at hand.

Even though the UK has left the European Union, this issue of EU VAT is still a matter that needs to be addressed for all British businesses trading with the EU.

EU VAT is a very complex arena but the scope of this post pertains primarily to the sale of digital services to consumers based in the EU from sellers based in the UK.

In a nutshell, sellers based in the UK using the digital platform Fiverr will not have to worry about EU VAT since they are absolved of responsibility as long as any provisions of their digital service (creating logos, graphic design, etc) to a consumer buyer based in the EU was done through Fiverr.

Any EU VAT will need to be accounted for and paid by Fiverr to the respective EU member state. As a digital platform they are responsible for complying due to the following reasons:

1. Fiverr is a “Digital Platform”.
2. Fiverr set the Terms and Conditions for their digital platform.
3. Fiverr authorises all payments on their digital platform.
4. Fiverr handles the downloads to buyers who utilise the Fiverr digital platform.

All these conditions are what is used to determine who is responsible for paying EU VAT from a British perspective.

More details can be found in the following link:
the vat rules if you supply digital services to private consumers

If you choose not to use a digital platform to provide digital services to consumers based in the EU, then you will be responsible for accounting and payment of VAT to the respective EU member state.

Hopefully this has helped some fellow British Fiverr sellers.