How to satifsy your accountant while doing SEO?

Hi guys!

My situation explained:

I'm doing SEO for my sites and i'm paying people to publish a post on their blog.
As a business i need to prove to my government where the money went. I need to make an invoice and include the information of the blog owner which include vat, business name and address.
- > This seems quite unusual to me.

I'm running into the same problems with the services advertised here on BHW. I first need to ask people if they are willing to provide their tax information to me before ordering their service.

My accountant is not really into internet marketing and doesn't know how to handle this situation.
I'm located in Belgium (EU).

How do you go around/solve this? I was thinking of using a middle man (escrow) on upwork?

Any help would be highly appreciated!

Hello @supervitallica, I am in the UK (still in EU) so accounting laws are very similar. You need an invoice for any expense, so if you buy a service here, you need to ask for an invoice, and most sellers will give you one. I would not recommend using a middle man just for invoicing. Internet marketing is very simple when it comes to invoicing, it is just a service like any other online service, normally with an invoice.

If you pay bloggers directly this can be a bit more tricky though. Use the paypal payment as proof or here again, ask for an invoice from the blogger (before paying). This is common practice in link selling.

I usually ask providers to invoice me through Paypal, they don't need to pay PP fees and I get an invoice.

safeSEOboost said:

Hello @supervitallica, I am in the UK (still in EU) so accounting laws are very similar. You need an invoice for any expense, so if you buy a service here, you need to ask for an invoice, and most sellers will give you one. I would not recommend using a middle man just for invoicing. Internet marketing is very simple when it comes to invoicing, it is just a service like any other online service, normally with an invoice.

If you pay bloggers directly this can be a bit more tricky though. Use the paypal payment as proof or here again, ask for an invoice from the blogger (before paying). This is common practice in link selling.

Click to expand...

This is what I do. I always ask for an invoice but if I can’t get one, I keep the PayPal receipt as proof of payment.

Also I keep very detailed records which I update every Friday - I note the amount, details about the provider and what it was for. So that way I have a comprehensive record and I can justify every figure within my accounts.

safeSEOboost said:

Hello @supervitallica, I am in the UK (still in EU) so accounting laws are very similar. You need an invoice for any expense, so if you buy a service here, you need to ask for an invoice, and most sellers will give you one. I would not recommend using a middle man just for invoicing. Internet marketing is very simple when it comes to invoicing, it is just a service like any other online service, normally with an invoice.

If you pay bloggers directly this can be a bit more tricky though. Use the paypal payment as proof or here again, ask for an invoice from the blogger (before paying). This is common practice in link selling.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply @safeSEOboost !
Asking for an invoice might indeed be better instead of asking directly for their vat and business address.
Paypal invoices are not "complete" invoices said my accountant. I still need their vat number,...
I will make sure to ask them for an invoice before paying for the link.

ches32 said:

I usually ask providers to invoice me through Paypal, they don't need to pay PP fees and I get an invoice.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer @ches32 , a paypal invoice is not "complete" for my accountant. I need to make a custom one.

davids355 said:

This is what I do. I always ask for an invoice but if I can’t get one, I keep the PayPal receipt as proof of payment.

Also I keep very detailed records which I update every Friday - I note the amount, details about the provider and what it was for. So that way I have a comprehensive record and I can justify every figure within my accounts.

Click to expand...

@davids355 Thank you for the reply!
So a Paypal receipt is enough as proof of payment for your government? Don't you need more information like vat and business address?

supervitallica said:

Thanks for the answer @ches32 , a paypal invoice is not "complete" for my accountant. I need to make a custom one.



@davids355 Thank you for the reply!
So a Paypal receipt is enough as proof of payment for your government? Don't you need more information like vat and business address?

Click to expand...

To be honest, I don’t know. I think possibly it’s not enough, I think you should have all the info you listed.

But you could document all that stuff. And if you can’t get that info, what else can you do?

Also I’ve witnessed a level of leniency when I’ve seen people getting tax inspection in the past so I’m going on the assumption that if my accounts are well documented and in good order then it should be ok. But don’t take this as official advice or anything; it’s just the way I do it.

supervitallica said:

Thanks for your reply @safeSEOboost !
Asking for an invoice might indeed be better instead of asking directly for their vat and business address.
Paypal invoices are not "complete" invoices said my accountant. I still need their vat number,...
I will make sure to ask them for an invoice before paying for the link.

Click to expand...

Paypal invoices are very fine. Ask the seller to include his VAT details in it (or yours).

davids355 said:

Also I keep very detailed records which I update every Friday - I note the amount, details about the provider and what it was for. So that way I have a comprehensive record and I can justify every figure within my accounts.

Click to expand...

Every Friday, you are such an organized man, impressed.

Damn, I thought it was a method of hot to sexually satisfy your accountant while doing some SEO at the same time Man, some topics are misleading as hell...

mysticparadise said:

Damn, I thought it was a method of hot to sexually satisfy your accountant while doing some SEO at the same time Man, some topics are misleading as hell...

Click to expand...

Haha! Reading the title again makes me question it too

your post title made me laugh a bit