Marketplace facilitator rules — is this a do-it-yourself job?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: facilitator rules move the collection duty to the platform for platform sales, leaving direct sales with the seller.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
If the marketplace collects the tax, do I still have to register?
Often yes. The facilitator rules move the collection duty to the platform for sales made through it; they do not usually extinguish everything else. If you also sell directly — your own site, a trade stand, a wholesale order — those sales stay with you, and a registration may be required for them alone. There can also be reporting or documentation duties that survive the shift, such as showing an authority why no tax was collected on a given line. The first step is to split your sales by channel and test each channel separately, rather than treating the platform's collection as an answer for the whole business.
Why don't my platform reports agree with the returns I filed?
Because the two are built on different bases. A platform report is organised around its own settlement cycles, customer credits and fee deductions; your return is organised around the periods and tax bases the authority defines. Currency conversion, returns processed after period end and cancelled orders all move amounts between periods. Reconciling platform-collected amounts to your own returns is the recurring compliance task, and it is far easier monthly than reconstructed at year end. Keep the platform's own statements as the source document, and record every adjustment you make to get from that figure to the one on the return.
Do I charge tax on sales from my own website as well?
Direct sales generally remain yours. The facilitator rules address supplies made through the platform; a sale a customer places on your own site is not one of those, so the ordinary rules apply — whether you are registered where the customer is, whether the supply is taxable there, and at what rate. Sellers get caught out when the direct channel is small enough to feel incidental but the jurisdiction counts it anyway. Treat your own channel as a separate business for tax purposes and test it on its own facts, in writing, so the conclusion can be shown later.
Do sales the marketplace collected on count towards my registration threshold?
It depends on the jurisdiction, and it is a question worth answering in writing before you rely on the answer. Some regimes exclude supplies the platform is treated as making; others count them when measuring whether you have crossed a registration line. Because the answer differs by destination, a seller shipping into several countries can be below the line in one and above it in another on exactly the same sales. We test the threshold destination by destination, using your own sales data split by channel, and record the basis for each conclusion so it does not have to be argued from memory.
The platform collected at a rate I think is wrong. What now?
Start by establishing who the law treats as the supplier for that sale. Where the platform is the collector, the correction usually runs through the platform's own process rather than through your return, and your file needs to show that the amount was collected and remitted by someone else. Where the sale was actually yours — a direct order routed through a platform link, for instance — the exposure is yours and correcting it is your job. Either way, document the channel, the customer's location and the rate applied at the time, because that is the evidence an authority asks for.
What records should I keep if a platform collects tax for me?
Keep the platform's periodic statements, the transaction-level export behind them, and your own reconciliation from those figures to each return you file. Add whatever evidence of the customer's location the platform captured, and the fee and credit-note detail that explains the gap between gross sales and what settled to you. If you hold stock in a country where you have no entity, keep the movement records too — that fact can create obligations of its own regardless of who collects on the sale. The test of the file is whether someone else can follow it without you in the room.
What is double tax relief and how is it given?
Three mechanisms, and which one you get depends on your residence country's law and the treaty. Exemption leaves the foreign income out of the residence-country base. Credit taxes it and then subtracts the foreign tax, capped at the residence-country tax on that income. Deduction merely reduces taxable income by the foreign tax, and is usually the weakest. Canada and the United States lead with credit; several treaties give exemption for specific income types. See claiming the credit.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
