A few years ago I pitched an article to a national newspaper. It was the third newspaper I had approached. The first one said it was a great article, but the editor didn’t think it would be right for his readership. He helpfully suggested a sister publication that might be interested. I had a look at that and discovered it had ceased publication!

The second newspaper I approached wasn’t a great experience. The editor of the relevant section emailed me to say he’d get back to me. After a week had passed with no news, I phoned him to ask if he’d had a chance to look at it. He barked at me, telling me not to pester him. I didn’t know until then that making one follow-up call, which is what all the writers on writing advise, counted as pestering. I told him not to worry about it, and not to look at or use my article.

Then I approached the third newspaper. At this point I ought perhaps to point out that the article was about an anomaly in the VAT laws as they pertain to digital goods. The EU, in its “wisdom”, changed the law on VAT so that the VAT is levied at the rate obtaining in the buyer’s country, not the sellers. This poses immense difficulties, or can do.

For example, if someone orders an ebook on the Eurostar, just as the train is crossing from England to France, which VAT rate is the correct one?

Even without that admittedly rare experience, the whole thing is a nightmare anyway because if someone gives you their address, how do you know it’s correct? They don’t have to give you an accurate address from the point of view of taking delivery of the product, because it will be sent via email. You have to devise ways of checking.

That wasn’t the only problem. At first, businesses that were registered for VAT in the UK were obliged to register for VAT in every EU country! Fortunately, the government created Vatmoss, a VAT one-stop shop. It wasn’t costless though: even if your turnover was below the VAT threshold, you had to register for VAT if you supplied digital goods or services to EU residents.

Now, companies that have an accounts department can cope with this sort of thing. In my business, I’m the accounts department. I’m also the production department, the marketing department, the sales department and the human resources department!

My article was about this situation, arguing the case for the UK government to opt out of this ridiculous law — not least because it affected me personally.

Anyway, I approached this third newspaper, and they thought the article was good, and wanted to run it. But then the person I spoke to asked me: “Do you have your own business?”

The correct answer was: “Of course I do. How else could I write about this from a personal perspective, you idiot?”

Well, being the politest person in education, to borrow someone’s description of me, I simply answered, “Yes. Why?”

The reason, it turned out, was that this newspaper pays less if the article has been written by someone who runs their own business. I couldn’t get to the bottom of this. All I know is that she was adamant that she would pay less than the going rate because I have a business.

I’m probably stupid, because some money is better than no money, but I thought (and think) it’s scandalous to remunerate someone based on whether or not they run a business. I told her I wasn’t interested.

Fortunately, a few days later another newspaper ran the story. Unfortunately, it had been written by someone else who had also picked up on this. A shame, but at least the issue saw the light of day. In the end I published the article in one of my newsletters, but I also published another, less detailed, story about it on the Writers’ Know-How website:

The hidden costs of EU VAT law to readers

Why does this newspaper pay less if you run a business? I can only surmise that they think all business owners are millionaires or something, or that the article is just a puff piece, a disguised attempt at self-promotion.

The reality is that if, like me, you earn your money from consultancy and training as well as writing, you have to form a limited company in order to get work from big companies. Becoming a limited company is a matter of paying a small amount of money for an off-the-shelf company that you give a name to (it’s basically a template and you fill in the blanks). You don’t automatically get to open an account in the Cayman Islands or Switzerland.

As for the puff piece aspect, all that’s required is a “bio” at the bottom of the article. That may seem like advertising, but readers are entitled to know that the writer knows what he or she is talking about.

You would think that an editor on a national newspaper would be educated enough to know all this. Sigh.

In the end, I’m afraid I gave in. When I sell ebooks, I use a company that deals with all the VAT hassle. It cost a bit of commission, but it meant I didn’t have to spend hours looking at the small print every time someone in the EU bureaucracy decided to change a rule or introduce a new one.