VAT Rebate for European Advertisers

Anyone heard more?

[NetPro]

This is taking far too long. Are we ever going to see those refunds?

Has anyone heard more about this?

[SClaw]

Just sumbitted a support request over this myself.

Last thing I had on the subject was a curt (literally one line) email informing me that a cheque had been sent. We still haven't seen it yet.

[NetPro]

Well I just got my reply from support and they told me they're experiencing delays in getting the refunds out. However, they claim this is largely down to the Irish government.

[ronmcd]

I had the same answer a couple of weeks ago, its delayed but will be coming soon.

[SClaw]

Same here.

[Frank_Rizzo]

Can someone explain what the VAT rebate is about?

I'm VAT registered in the UK and just started with adsense.

If they send me a cheque for £100 what's the deal with the vat?

Do I account for:

£85.10 + £14.90 VAT = £100

or

£100 zero rated

?

BTW, same goes with adwords. I registered for Adwords but dropped the campaign due to not qualifying for G's T&C's. They billed me £5.00 so is this £4.25 + vat or £5.00 vat exempt?

[pmkpmk]

It's AdWords - the other end.

We PAY for the ads - European invoices come out of Ireland and have Irish VAT on them. Commercial advertisers can give their local VAT number (from France, Germany, Italy, etc.) and then get net invoices only.

Before they implemented this, you paid the ads including VAT so you might get a refund.

[arran]

pmkpmk,

If I become VAT registered today, can I claim a refund on my adwords spend this year or just going forward?

Thanks,
arran.

[pmkpmk]

I'm not the expert - ask AdWordsAdvisor. I just explained what it is about.

[kmander]

The wait is getting somewhat ridiculous and is especially irritating not knowing how long the wait will be. I assume now one has become aware of any news on the topic, so what can we do about it? Although I am usually against such notions, perhaps it might be useful to write a collective letter to Google ala a petition to demand some communication.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I assume now one has become aware of any news on the topic, so what can we do about it?

Sorry for the frustration kmander (and others). Although VAT related questions are not in my particular sphere, I'll see if I can't get an update and post again tomorrow.

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

kmander, I've pinged a few colleagues on this question, and the answer boils down to unexpected delays due to a very high volume of refund requests.

You have my apology for the delays, which I know must be hard to wait out. Many thanks for being so patient on this.

AWA

[traderman]

AWA, thanks for the update, however this is exactly what we have been told for the past four or five months.

Whilst I appreciate that there must be a huge number of people to refund, the fact remains that Google are holding large sums of customers money that they should never have collected in the first place - I am personally owed in excess of $10k.

Can you provide any indication as to when refund payments will actually be made? Every time I phone Google, I am told 'within 4 weeks' - after such a long period of time, this is wearing thin.

Whilst $10k is not a lot of money to Google, it is a heck of a lot of money to me and I don't remember Google ever letting me wait five months before paying one of my Adwords bills :-)