Czech Market and VAT

[MJM]

I do little in this market but do try to promote regulated brands whenever possible - tried to cashout from ifortuna.cz and they say without a VAT I cannot be paid. I am based in the United States so I don't think it even exists for me. What to do? Trivial amount at this time but wanted to potentially promote them more in the future.

[justbookies]

Are they asking for a 'vat invoice' or are they stating you must be registered for vat?

VAT does not apply for USA, from Europe's point of view USA is 'outside scope' of vat, so simply doesn't exist for any european transaction with USA businesses (buying or selling). It doesn't even apply for Gibraltar as that European jurisdiction is not part of the European VAT system.

If they said the same thing to a European affiliate, it would still make no sense as probably only a tiny percentage of affiliates in Europe are VAT registered (in the UK for example, it only kicks in at a certain, fairly high, threshold).

The only thing that makes sense is that they asked for a "VAT invoice", in which case they really mean "send us an invoice and we'll pay you".

[Triple7]

It depends per country of perhaps UK is different. Almost every company in a country in EU, not being UK, has a VAT number. If you're not based within the EU, you should make an invoice without VAT number and also without VAT ofc.

[Sherlock]

What a "coincidence". Exactly right now I am solving the same issue with one Czech ad company that insists on the VAT invoice and they substract the money.

De iure you are right, but defacto you must pay it. There are Czech companies that ofc do not invoice this, but more and more do. The reason is huge fear. It is a crusade against VAT frauds nowadays called Carousel frauds. Recent chief of finance, who is next premier, 2nd richest Czech persona, Andrej Babis is making his own political agenda to fight against this. There are 100% legit companies which were destroyed by Czech state only because they were investigated for VAT fraud. The investigation often starts with blocking of all accounts and then you have to prove you are innocent, but it takes at least many months, so many companies lose everything in between.

Gambling companies are target in Czech as well by leftists who want to have power against Babis; also they are fighting/fought against competition like bet365 that does not pay taxes... so yeah they are scared to do mistakes and pay even on the top... it is unlikely you will change them.

[MJM]

sorry for the slow reply, I got sick the last few days and wasn't online.

So far fortuna seems to be telling me I can't be paid, period, without a VAT. I don't seem to be dealing with the friendliest of AM's either - here is what my conversation looks like so far:

Them:

Dear Mr xxxx,

Unfortunately your payment request for invoice number FCZ008767 has been declined.

For further information regarding this payment please contact your affiliate manager.

Kind Regards

The Affiliate Team

Me:

Can you please tell me why it is declined?

Them:

Good afternoon,

Yes I can. I wrote you 4 emails about missing Vat ID, but everytimes email was not delivered.

I closed invoicing process yesterday.

BR

Lucie Petrželková
Group Affiliate Manager

Me:

Hmm that is strange I have never recieved an email? Why would those come back undeliverable while i get this one just fine? Maybe a typo?

Anyways I am an individual not a corporation and in the United States so we don't have VAT numbers here.

I occasionally run into things like this as I promote regulated brands in a a lot of different countries and I'm happy to say all other operators have figured out a way to pay us.

As we are just starting to promote you and keen to send more activity to your brand it's important we get this sorted for the future.

Them:

Good afternoon,

Czech Republic is regular market, our goverment needs to have Vat on every invoices.

We can not pay you without Vat certification.

Me:

VAT doesn't exist for me. Surely I'm not the only affiliate not living in the Czech to promote you.

I hope you can look into this.

Them:

Good afternoon,

For successful invoicing process we need VAT, this is not our rules, but rules of Czech goverment.

Me:

I don't think that is accurate you are just supposed to put VAT: not applicable on the invoice like other operators do for us in regulated markets.


Please read:
https://www.proz.com/forum/money_mat...at_number.html

Them:

Mike!

Do you cooperate with another company here in CZ???

If I write you we need VAT, it means we really need it.

CZ market is different and we have so many government order we have to implement.

BR

Lucie Petrželková
Group Affiliate Manager

Me:

How can I supply something that doesn't exist? Please talk to your finance department because this is something that simply does not exist in the United States - id find it hard to believe that not a single Czech business in the entire country doesn't do some sort of business with a US based entity.


Please understand I'm not trying to be difficult or question the accuracy of your statements, I'm simply attempting to find a way that we can still work together.


This is a small payment so I'm not concerned with it (yet) - we want to promote regulated brands to appropriate traffic so for now it's probably best to just let the commission accumulate while I/we investigate possible solutions.


I will start a thread on GPWA to ask what others have done about this and see if anyone has any ideas specific to the Czech market.


Thanks for all the quick replies!

Them:

Mike

I really do not have time for it, I needn’t ask my financial department, I know very well what we need, trust me, somebody like you try it in past many times.

No, no way how to do it without VAT certification. Then we will need to pay taxes here for your invoice and it is 35%!!!!!! and some penalty fot it from goverment.

We are working on regular markets, we can not do nothing with it, trust me.

BR

Lucie Petrželková
Group Affiliate Manager

END

That is our conversation in entirety so far, thankfully it's a trivial amount for us at this time but my normal process with a new brand is to add them, let some commissions accumulate, then ensure they can pay us properly before promoting them further. Not sure what I can do here - as we were going to add this brand to romania and slovakia sites of ours soon as well. Anyone have any ideas?

[Gosu]

How pathetic is this communication with that company really? I wouldnt even want to work with them... Of course there must be a way, as you said, highly unlikely not a single cze company is doing business with US... ^^ And then that Lucie is really bad mannered and disrespectful. Man, its getting better and better the way affiliates are being treated.

[MJM]

I figured it might be a language barrier and maybe the AM isn't trying to come off as snippy as they seem to be, because it's literally my first ever communication with them, or maybe because I've only sent a handful of depositors so far, I don't know. I only posted the conversation because I don't think that one is going to go any further and remain productive, to see if anyone who works more in the market could help me figure it out for the future. So, it's not an issue for me currently (small amount, handful of players), but it will be one if we/they want to continue with us plus was going to add to Romania/Slovkia sites as they operate there as well.

Any other good Czech brands?

[Triple7]

The lady is confusing some things. 35% is gaming tax and has nothing to do with VAT. VAT rate is 21%. Her communication is very pathetic. Just like their terms. They have also some pathetic quota which can reduce your commission to 0%.

I don't know about the exact requirements of VAT-registration. Here some info that I found: https://www.alexio.cz/vat/VAT_business_abroad.html. I guess you should ask an account or tax advisor knowing something about it.

For Romania they will ask for a copy of your license, even before they approve your account.

[Sherlock]

There are no good Czech brands (with affiliates) and there are no good Czech people. This is just normal way of communication there. Get used to it or leave...

They are certainly wrong that this is something imposed by government. Czech or Euro companies indeed can decide to deal out of VAT regime in cases like that. If she want an example domain registrar subreg.cz (Czech) or dondominio.com (Spanish) put companies/people out of EU on non VAT regime easily.

They are just lazy + plus Mrs. Petrzelkova and other people in that company are just rude idiots. I remember that another bitch from their risk department was threatening a player who win too much after they stole money from him. Alza.cz (biggest retail electronics shop) for example returns VAT to any person living out of EU. Other retail shops even do not know what I was talking about.

[dailera]

US companie also can register for VAT.
There are many companies outside EU with registered VAT numbers. The VAT number start with EU.............
MJM if you are interested you can read more here

Hope that will help you.

The registration seems to be easy, but I am not sure about the accounting. For sure you should speak with accountant.