*IMPORTANT* EU VAT and Skool = not compliant currently

According to my accountant the way Skool & EU customers handle VAT is not compliant.

This could potentially lead to pretty big bills or fines so I hope we get this right. 🙂

The only way - according to her - this way of charging would be compliant is, if Skool owns your product (community) and pays you a commission for it. This of course isn't the case and wouldn't work anyways.

If you are in EU and your customers are EU consumers, you should charge VAT for your service.

(VAT is different % in different EU countries after all!)

If you are in EU and your customers are B2B in your own country, you should charge VAT normally (then your customers can deduct it in their accounting).

If they are from a different EU country you can charge zero VAT but the invoice has to have the customer's VAT ID and a statement that it's "reverse charge".

It says in the Skool Q&A like this:

"Skool handles VAT/sales tax compliance for you. You don't need to register for VAT or do anything. All VAT/sales tax liability is on Skool, not you. Payouts from Skool to you are VAT/sales tax exempt because Skool is a US company."

I got a reply from help@skool to my inquiry about this last month, which said:

"Since Skool is a US-based company handling the customized invoice, they (buyers) can simply add their information and they should be good to go. VAT implications and payment responsibilities are on us. We collaborate with an external compliance firm to ensure everything is remitted as deemed necessary"

So according to my accountant, doesn't work like this.

If you (me) are the service provider for the community, VAT responsibilities are on you (me).

Also possible consequences are on the comunity service provider (you/me).

AFAI understand, in order for this to work, technically it would mean that Skool should own your paid community and provide the service. You just get paid commission from Skool. But if any lawyer ever actually checks this it's not going to fly 😅

If what my accountant says is true, then this could lead to some not fun consequences.

❗Super simple suggestion for a quick fix:

❗Provide a line where paid community owner can manually set up VAT % so that it shows on the receipts.

Can you provide me (and other EU clients) with an explanation about the topic above?

How it works and why my accountant would be not correct about the topic?

Or if you're unsure, would love to make 100% sure that I'm doing my own compliancy correctly with my accountant 😊

I'd appreciate replies to this from the official team! 🙂

@Sid Sahasrabuddhe

@Erika Kulpina

@Wiktor Romanowicz

(I just tagged you guys from the admin list idk if you are the people handling these topics!)

Thanks!

P.S.

I searched this topic but there was not too many posts about it.

A few without official replies and then some that says "Skool handles VAT compliancy" but above I was pondering why this might not be actually correct. 🙂

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