I’m really confused about how this will effect people who use crowd-sourcing platforms, like Kickstarter and Indigo. I self-publish books (paperbacks and ebooks) and I use Kickstarter to pre-sell these books, which then allows me to fund the whole enterprise (much like how an advance would work). I don’t sell anything directly from my own website (when the books are finished I use Smashwords and Amazon for those people who didn’t back the Kickstarter and I know they will deal with the VAT issue at their end) and Kickstarter also takes 20% VAT from their fees, too.

I’m way below the threshold for being VAT registered. I barely make enough to pay income tax.

So, I’m not technically selling anything directly from my website – I’m using other platforms to facilitate this – and if I follow the HRMC flowchart, the rule doesn’t seem to effect me. Or does it effect me if one of my eBook backers is from, say Germany? Am I in trouble or not? Or should I ban EU (not including UK) residents from backing the eBook reward tiers? I honestly don’t know what to do for the best.