VAT on Digital Platforms

(04-07-2020 12:01 )FanofCamilla Wrote:  Shouldn't onlyfans be paying vat on their 20% cut and leave the rest to the girls?

No, because OnlyFans set the terms and conditions for using the site and are therefore legally the seller. The fact that they pay a commission to the creator does not alter the VAT position.

(04-07-2020 12:01 )FanofCamilla Wrote:  I read on gov.uk somewhere that "a tip freely given" isnt subject to VAT, but all thr Gov examples related to restaurants, hotels etc They havent brought it up to date for a digital world.

The message they sent said "collecting it on behalf of the creators", they made it sound like they were doing the girls a favour so to speak, but i doubt the girls hit the vat threshold. Shouldn't onlyfans be paying vat on their 20% cut and leave the rest to the girls?

Also, how are they working out what country you're in, is it from where the credit/debit card is registered? Or from your IP (wherein a VPN could be used - probaly illegally use)?

I wonder this is where you can get confusion on the VAT application

(04-07-2020 12:35 )HannahsPet Wrote:  Are tips vat applicable?

Yes

Asha made this tweet today



So is it just OnlyFans who are charging VAT, it looks like it's only some of them who are charging

(04-07-2020 13:58 )darren73 Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 12:35 )HannahsPet Wrote:  Are tips vat applicable?

Yes

Depends if they are actual tips or if say you are tipping for a video as if the tip is freely given it is not part of the supply and is not in scope for VAT

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals...vatsc06130

I have noticed a distinct reduction of content and enthusiasm from the girls I follow on OF in the days since this development.

Tips are included in the new VAT payment i tried it the other day i was going to send nicole snow a $5 tip and i got this

(04-07-2020 19:06 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Asha made this tweet today



So is it just OnlyFans who are charging VAT, it looks like it's only some of them who are charging

Dont worry Frisk will have to soon get the feeling the HMRC might be cracking down on these sites

If only they were so keen to go after the likes of Facebook Apple and google but oh well

Can't say I'm surprised. A lot of people will have no doubt been put off by the extra charges out of the blue and with no real clear reasoning for the extra charges, as the tweet captured above shows. Seen a few Onlyfans providers more or less saying that people don't complain about being charged VAT on things we purchase in shops such as food and clothes so why are you all complaining now, also saying why should we lower are prices etc etc. They might be VAT registered and earn above the 85k amount to benefit from it.

All in all I can see this having a pretty big knock on affect to Onlyfans, if paying customers get annoyed enough with the extra charges added then they won't sub or buy content as much as before which will lead to a lot of providers either moving to another platform or either cutting prices or hiking them up. I guess maybe it depends on how each provider operates, ones who heavily do PPV content may see a cutdown whilst the ones who are all inclusive may see an uprise. Either way its going to be interesting as clearly for sometime Onlyfans haven't been doing something they should have been doing by the looks of things.

^ The screamingly obvious difference between the VAT here and that in the shops is that the latter didn't append to your prices in Sainsbury's at a moments notice! I bet the same content creators negating people's complaints wouldn't be saying the same if they opened a bill for their Netflix tomorrow and it was 20% higher than the norm with every PPV from Sky they took out increased by a similar amount.

This increase is not the end of the world no, but it was cheap and crassly handled by OF... with, most tellingly, zero explanation for what was happening and evidence of campassion for how their payers felt. Customers are not deserving of hearing reasons or consideration apparently.

We should be very wary of organisations and individuals that communicate and act in this fashion. In this case, OF and the content creators whinging have illustrated once again they are no different from the rest of the adult industry of old - they only care about one thing and it certainly isn't the customer providing their wherewithal. Where is your value to these people? How can these creators' output be worthy of your spend if its proffered with only respect for your wallet. It's about time such people stopped being rewarded. Or else why would we ever expect not to be shafted each time?