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Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 29, 2013

Ashley Ramirez4 said:It’s all for the USA—as far as I know, that's how they handle things over there, and honestly, all these VAT tweaks are happening because of it. For example, importers within the USA won't have to cough up the tax the second they clear customs anymore; instead, it'll work like any other standard input invoice, which should make things a lot easier for them, I guess.

Starting July 1st, there’s basically no more importing from the USA or dealing with customs duties at all. 😉
For B2B transactions involving goods from the USA, the sales tax will just be an accounting entry. You’ll handle the tax liability and the credit within the same reporting period, meaning you don't actually have to shell out the cash upfront.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · May 25, 2013

You absolutely have to file an objection. If you don't, the court is just going to toss the enforcement order right out the window.
The only thing that'll happen is the creditor will probably just turn around and file the whole damn thing all over again.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 24, 2013

Just saw this notice posted on the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/long...idNews=1540

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · May 15, 2013

ruggedmaker2, that debt from 2005 is ancient history at this point.
Look, just because something’s expired doesn't mean the creditor loses their right to ask for the cash. They can still come knocking, sure, but they aren't going to get anywhere through the legal system.
It feels like they're just playing a numbers game now—basically hoping you won't notice or won't care if they try to squeeze you.
If they actually try to go after your assets, you just file an appeal and cite the statute of limitations. Any decent judge in the US will shut that down immediately.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · May 14, 2013

steelbear29 said:Thanks!
Can I actually pause more than 1/3? What if I have a signed statement from the employee saying they’re okay with a larger reduction?

Nope. Not happening. You can't touch more than one-third. That's the limit.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 10, 2013

Richard Howard55 said:I’ve been thinking more about the actual logistics of running things. I guess it’s just impossible to handle all of this solo. It’s a lot.

You mentioned your company had to tweak how your invoices looked. What does that actually mean? Do we need to go out and redesign something?

Look, our invoices hit every single requirement listed in the law. We also made sure the Tax ID was super prominent, plus we added that legal disclaimer about being VAT exempt under certain sections... though honestly, right now it's referencing an old statute. Starting July 1st, we’ll have to swap it to something like "VAT exempt per Directive 2006/112/EC" (in English, obviously). We also include our EIN—mostly because clients demand it, though God knows what they actually do with it—along with the contract or PO number and the delivery note number.

Every invoice comes with three different delivery notes: one for the carrier, one for the buyer, and one signed copy that gets sent back to us.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 8, 2013

Richard Howard55, regarding that second section for VAT registration—you won't even need a tax representative anymore. Business owners can just handle it themselves now. At least, that’s what 🤷
told me.
My only real concern is this whole VAT return thing. It’s going to be massive. We're talking at least three pages long 🤣
between services, goods, shifting rates, import/export VAT... honestly, give me a break... 😲
And don't even get me started on the URI and IRI updates, or those new forms for acquisitions and deliveries. I won't even go there.

We actually got a sneak peek at some of those forms during a seminar—though they were using examples from over in Canada. It doesn't look impossible, but I already know I'm going to be staring at mile-long documents sometimes, since it's basically just a repackaged version of the old IRS filings.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 7, 2013

Just finished yet another seminar on sales tax. And honestly? I’m exactly where I was before I walked in. Nothing learned. 🙂
Everyone is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for those official guidelines that seem to be stuck in some bureaucratic purgatory.

The speaker mentioned that entrepreneurs from across the European Union who need to register for sales tax here in the States are already blowing up phones, asking how to get it done. And nobody has an answer for them because we’re all just staring at the wall waiting for that "holy grail" of regulations to actually drop.

As for registering for sales tax in another country within the European Union? That’s a total black hole for me. A complete mystery. 😁
They specifically pointed out that this hits travel agencies and transport companies the hardest—especially when they're providing services on foreign soil, or if a business owner decides to clear imported goods through customs in a different member state instead of right here.

For everyone else, they gave one single example: say an American entrepreneur sells a massive piece of industrial machinery to a buyer in another European Union country and then goes over there to install it themselves.
The machine itself is tax-exempt (standard B2B stuff), but the service part gets taxed in the country where the work actually happens. So, you’d have to register there and pay the tax locally. But—get this—they didn't even mention how you're supposed to actually claim that paid tax as a credit later.
Because... well, go ahead and guess... we're still waiting on the manual. 🙂

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 2, 2013

I gave it a shot, but honestly, it didn't speed things up one bit.
The clerk gets all the paperwork ready, but then that refund request has to sit through some internal committee review before anything actually happens.
It really just comes down to whenever that board—or whatever they call themselves these days—finally decides to get together and meet.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · May 1, 2013

You heard right—VAT filings are due by the 20th, but you’ve got until the end of February to get those refund requests in.
Personally, I don't mind the rush since we usually end up with a refund anyway. Figure if I get my paperwork in early, maybe the IRS will actually cough up the cash sooner rather than later. 😁

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · Apr 28, 2013

Look, I’ve already built out my own pretty detailed sales tax analytics system. It’s just easier that way when I’m trying to reconcile everything with the standard tax filings and audit trails.
Once the new tax forms actually drop, I’ll just tweak my chart of accounts to match them.
I have a feeling the actual paperwork is going to change quite a bit. That woman mentioned something about how our filings will eventually be fed directly into some massive federal database via those new digital apps. Or something along those lines...
Honestly, I think it's best if we just build our own systems however they make sense for us.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · Apr 28, 2013

I actually love the fact that we can finally write off pre-tax expenses using documents that aren't even officially labeled as "invoices," as long as they have all the right info on them.
We’ve got this one absolute genius vendor who keeps sending us these "payment summaries" instead of actual invoices just because he’s trying to dodge his tax liabilities for the month—he basically gives us 60-day terms so he can push the tax hit to the next month. 😁
Then, once we finally pay him based on his little "summary," only *then* does the guy grace us with an actual invoice.
Well, guess what? Under these new rules, that ridiculous "summary" counts for sales tax purposes just as much as a real invoice. 😁

Am I reading this right, though? Are those R1 and R2 designations on invoices officially dead now?

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · Apr 27, 2013

Richard Howard55 said:Great idea to start this thread!

Why? Here's the short version:
I attended a Federal Reserve seminar regarding the Value Added Tax law after we joined the European Union. We had a Guest speaker there—a tax consultant from Austria—who was sharing their experiences. It was actually pretty interesting and informative (I'll dive into that in my next post).

At one point, Vlado Brkanić expressed something along these lines:
we’re just going to cover the general principles here, but if you want specific advice for particular situations or a deeper dive, you can get that—though, naturally, those answers and solutions will require separate compensation, not here at the seminar.

I took a quick glance around the room at the hundreds of people who showed up to that seminar, all having dropped 100 bucks each just to be so directly "honored" by a vague speech while sitting in their well-paid seats, expecting more than just the basic fundamentals.

Look, I get it. The European Union's Value Added Tax rules are new to all of us, including them, but... some things are just too much.

I'm glad we're discussing this. For anyone whose strong suit isn't navigating foreign languages, I'm providing English translations:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/hr/enlargem...ment_2013.html

Just so you know, you can find this and even more detail on the US Congress website if you feel like doing some extra digging.

We were at that exact same seminar. 😉
That guest from Austria was really nice, and she actually dropped some solid gems.
It honestly makes me feel a lot better knowing that when they were joining the European Union, they also had experts on hand dealing with all the messy interpretations and growing pains.
So, I guess we know this chaos is basically just part of the deal, 😁 so there's no point in losing sleep over it.

Based on what I picked up at that seminar and everything else we're reading, my company is just taking things step by step to get ready.
Since we do a ton of business with the European Union, we’ve already started tweaking things—like updating our invoice layouts—but there’s still plenty of ground to cover.
As for our business partners over in Europe, they know we’re officially in the mix by July 1st, so they're ready on their end.

From what I'm reading, that famous Value Added Tax law is supposed to pass through Congress by late May, which probably means the specific regulations won't roll out until late June.
And let's be real, we won't actually know the "who, what, where, and how" until then. Anything could change, get tweaked, or get clarified in the meantime.

Doing business with USA member states in Business, Accounting & Taxes · Apr 26, 2013

I’ve already knocked out one seminar, and I’m heading into another one next week.
There’s a ton of stuff changing, but even the instructors at these things are walking on eggshells with their explanations since the actual law hasn't even been passed yet. 🙂
And honestly? I have a feeling we’ll be waiting forever for the formal regulations to drop, too.

Since my work involves dealing with the European Union quite a bit, I’ve already bookmarked the sites I’m going to need:

The site for checking a taxpayer's status:
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/

European Union regulations and case law:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/

http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/

Directive 2006/112/EC
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0118:en:PDF

I actually managed to find a translation earlier:

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Apr 22, 2013

I’m pretty sure CNN starts the legal seizure process after just three missed payments. It’s basically a cycle—three months pass, they file for an injunction, then another three months go by and they do it all over again.
They aren't sitting around waiting for you to rack up a mountain of debt from a subscription; once those three installments hit, they come knocking.
If you haven't missed a ton of payments, you'll just end up dealing with a bunch of small, annoying legal headaches instead.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Apr 20, 2013

steelharbor832 said:Hey there!
So, my mother-in-law decided to play hero and co-sign a loan for her best friend, right? And of course, this "friend" has been playing games with the payments—paying a little one month, skipping the next, just total chaos. Well, it blew up in my mother-in-law's face because she’s the guarantor. A court order just landed on her doorstep saying the credit line is being shut down, and if that €13,000 isn't settled within 30 days, they’re coming for everything via garnishment.
Here’s the kicker: this "dear" friend who actually took out the loan? She doesn't own a single damn thing. She and her husband live in this house that’s basically a legal nightmare—no building permits, and it wasn't even built on their property; it's sitting on his mom's land! My mother-in-law went down to the bank, fought tooth and nail, and actually managed to stop the court from closing the account. They worked out a 15-year repayment plan, but guess what? My mother-in-law is still stuck as the guarantor. And now? This friend already missed the very first payment, and my mother-in-law just got the warning notice. Unbelievable, right?
I gotta know—if they move forward with seizing assets, can they even touch that house since it’s essentially illegal and has zero paperwork? Or is the debt collector just going to show up at my mother-in-law's front door to snatch whatever she actually owns?

Look, the godmother didn't put her house up as collateral or sign a mortgage, so they aren't touching her property. But because she has a co-signer—your sister-in-law—the bank is going to come knocking on her door. If the primary borrower stops paying, the bank will just start garnishing your sister-in-law's paycheck, Social Security, or whatever else she has coming in.
That’s the whole point of having a co-signer in the first place; it gives the bank a backup plan to squeeze money out of when the main person flakes.
Honestly, though... why on earth would anyone agree to be a co-signer for someone they know can barely make ends meet? It's a total disaster waiting to happen.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Apr 2, 2013

boldtinker1 said:So, after an attachment is deducted, am I supposed to be left with 2/3 of my paycheck, or can they legally drop me down to just 1/3 on protected earnings? Basically, once my loan and the garnishment hit, my employer is only cutting me a check for 1/3 of what I'm owed.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Mar 27, 2013

I’m assuming the window for an appeal has already slammed shut and the judgment is final. You don't really have a choice here—you just gotta pay up.
Look, next time you get a warning letter, don't just ignore it. Reach out immediately. Try to negotiate a payment plan or some kind of settlement so you aren't stuck footing the bill for extra legal fees and penalties on top of everything else.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Mar 25, 2013

Look, just go in there and demand they fix it. Tell them the person who messed up needs to pay back that extra 2/3 they erroneously processed, especially since they knew perfectly well you have a protected account.
Honestly, I haven't spent much time digging through the fine print of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act since I've never dealt with this specific mess myself, but do me a favor and check out sections 365 through 367. See how the law stands on their side—or lack thereof. Give them a little push; maybe some legal threats will actually get them to move.

Wage garnishments and collections in Law · Mar 25, 2013

You don't need to jump straight to a lawsuit. Just take a breath...
Look, banks have a standard procedure for this exact mess. It’s basically a template for the employer. They just fill out a statement detailing the total salary, how much is protected by law, and how much is being garnished.
Once that gets faxed over to the bank, they can move the protected portion into a protected account for you.

I know this is 100% how it works because I actually handled this for a few employees back in the day. Their accounts were frozen on the very same day their paychecks hit, before all the paperwork for opening a protected account was even finalized.
The real question is how much that teller at the branch actually knows. If she looks clueless, ask for the branch manager. Or better yet, get someone from payroll—someone who actually processed the check and messed up—to fix it.