Why no proper invoices for Adwords for UK customers

how am I supposed to account for it?

[Frank_Rizzo]

I signed up for adwords on the google.co.uk site. I would have thought that a UK branch would deal with the accounting and issue full VAT invoices.

Not the case, and I guess a possible VAT av0idance trick is going on here.

I mailed the support and they say the only invoice is the report invoice generated on screen.

Is my accountant going to accept that as a valid expense?

[NFFC]

>Is my accountant going to accept that as a valid expense?

Yes. It's backed up with your credit card statement also.

>VAT av0idance

VAT planning Frank :) Nice article from The Register concerning this very issue and AOL, well worth a read;
"Currently, AOL UK is treated as a content provider domiciled outside the European Union, and therefore not subject to VAT"
[theregister.co.uk...]

[Mardi_Gras]

Is my accountant going to accept that as a valid expense?

I guess you need to ask your accountant :)

I don't get anything different here in the US. Same for Overture.

[Crazy_Fool]

frank - i've had no trouble with accounting without real invoices.

NFFC - the AOL situation will only continue for another 12 months. See this:
[theregister.co.uk...]

to all intents and purposes, AOL UK is no different to any other UK based ISP in that they appear to be british based and provide (only) to a british audience.

Google on the other hand provide a worldwide service through adwords, based in the US - anyone in the world can sign up to advertise anywhere in the world. this makes google adwords vastly different to AOL UK.

[caine]

A credit card statement is sufficient, as long as the accounts are aware of the expenditure, and can account for it with the VAT man.

[Frank_Rizzo]

But if there is not VAT invoice you cant claim the VAT back.

I had hassle with this about 7 years ago with Compuserve. Tried to claim the VAT but because they didnt issue them, couldn't.

Man, remember those days? Had to pay £2.95 AN HOUR and on top of that a long distance call per monute to the next county because the local town was still on 14.4K dial up. Jeeze.

[Mardi_Gras]

This is getting off your original question, but I remember connecting to Dow Jones Newswire (there was no internet then) at 300 baud - and paying ridiculous amounts of moeny for the privelege!

[JuDDer]

There may be some misunderstanding here about claiming VAT back.

If you spend $100 with a US company for example, they only charge you $100. No VAT.

If however you spend £100 in the UK with a VAT registered company, there will usually be 17.5% VAT on top of the price which brings it to £117.50.

It's the £17.50 that's being claimed back, so..

Being a US company and not being a VAT registered UK company, they do not charge you VAT thus there is nothing for you to claim back.

You can't claim back VAT that you've not paid.
Google don't charge you any VAT.