My accountant says I need to declare Upwork clients' VAT number!?

[david_fallows]

One of our team members will reach out to you via ticket as soon as possible and assist you further with your purchasing connects. Thank you.Hello! How is everyone doing?

So, my accountant just spoke to her advisor. I'll keep this short and sweet by pasting her reply directly in here.

"VAT to be calculated on Upwork assignments. For assignments that you receive by Upwork.

At first it is important to know whether the client is a private individual or entrepreneur and from which country it comes. To clients from the USA you don't have to charge VAT, cause the USA has no VAT.

If you receive orders from other countries, you will have to ask the entrepreneurs from within the EU for their VAT number. Entrepreneurs within the EU use the VAT shifted rule.

Do you've got an order from private individuals from any country, you must calculate the VAT rate in the country where they live. Below is a link with VAT percentages for all countries in the world.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_btw-tarieven_naar_land

I'll hope I made it clear to you, if you have questions don't hastate to ask."

This doesn't sound right to me. I can't see an Upwork client being very happy at being asked by a freelancer for their tax details.

If anyone could shed some light on this that'd be great. Linking me to documentation is not going to work as I've already provided Upwork's (AND **Edited for Community Guidelines**) TOS over and over, many times. I have to call her back by the end of today and I really don't feel comfortable agreeing to the above.

It's not just me with this issue. Plenty of other Dutch-based freelancers over on **Edited for Community Guidelines**were also caught in the middle of {freelancing>platform<client (tax)}.

Thanks.

[g_vasilevski]

Hello David,

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