This is a weird scenario I've come across.
Someone runs a blog dedicated to a particular topic area. Pretty much 50% of his time is spent on it as he does part time work elsewhere for other income. Content is updated frequently and his site is linked to Adsense and various other means of income from advertising.
He has now brought up a VAT consideration and a "trade" consideration.
Can he declare that the act of maintaining a blog for obtaining income from advertising is a trade and if so does that mean that if he registers for VAT he could claim back the VAT on expenses relating to maintaining the blog or providing content. It's a review site so he has to acquire products to review for his followers which costs him money.
Now VAT-wise I'd say, that's fine, because Adsense income (based on the place of supply rules etc) would classify as outside the scope of VAT, however I'm more concerned about the "trade" aspect. Granted it takes up a lot of time, requires a lot of work, involves costs and generates income, but is that enough to classify it as a legitamate trade? To be fair he gets a fair amount of income from the advertising, though I wouldn't be surprised if he made a loss for a fair while none the less.
Thoughts please?