Help invoice

[Raiper34]

Hi, 

 

One sponsor want to invoice from me, how to do it? I am not company and i can not make invoices... i am only hobbist... Please help me. 

[soybean]

There are many Word templates in the net for making an invoice. Just download and adjust the information, such as your name and address, and the purpose of the invoice and how much. I believe you don't need to be a company to send an invoice. Some professionals just use their names, like doctors, lawyers, mechanics, etc.

[Raiper34]

But can I? Because I am not tradesman or etc... Is this legal? 

[sandy234]

http://www.aynax.com/

 

One of publisher gave me this website to make one. Its easy

[soybean]

I don't think you need to have a license of some sort to issue an invoice. But you do need to include specific information about yourself that can be used as reference if there is a legal act need to be done related to the document. The immediate need for this is related to tax. Since we need to tax our income and also deduct that tax via business related activities, then invoices hold an important place as evidence that the said transactions has been done and documented.

 

You can check wikipedia about the definition of an invoice.\

 

CMIIW

[Chris]

I think it really depends on the country you are living in if you can create invoices and what information you have to put on them.

Here in germany, you can't simply create an invoice but have to register a company first (this is tax related).

[Raiper34]

Sandy234, Are you tradesman? Do you have special numbers? I do not know english name but here is Identification number and Tax Identification Number??? 

[sandy234]

I just put my name city and country in invoice and then put publishers details and specified my game name and cost. It worked for one publisher

[Daikrys]

you dont need to register a company in germany if you dont plan to work on a regular basis, but indeed you have to list any income in the yearly tax return

however if you register a company (or subsidiary occupation) here in germany, you get a tax free amount of money you can earn per year and also dont have such high taxes to pay for any additional income

 

i dont really think there is anything bad in register a company to avoid tax issues and stay legal in any way

also if its common in your country you can get a tax refund for stuff you bought for work

[rich]

I've found that "Invoice" can mean a lot of different things in different countries. Really all it is, is a piece of paper with your details on saying "pay me this money for this work" that the receiving company can use when they do their accounts. Otherwise from their end they have this amount of money being paid out from their bank, but no corresponding paperwork to say what it was for.

 

You could knock one of these up in Google Docs in about 5 minutes.

 

The only 'legal' aspect is 100% at your end - i.e. what you decide to do about the money you're gaining from the portal. I know a lot of devs who don't declare it at all, they just pay it into their bank account and forget about it. To be honest I did this for a few years too (a long time ago). But it's not actually legal and with every payment you take you are playing the lottery really that you will never be investigated by the tax man. However setting up a company can be expensive, so look at doing it as a freelancer instead (non-Limited company).

 

It really all comes down to how often you intend to make money selling games. The more you earn, the more chance of being caught out. Also your age plays a big role too. Seek out some local advice, maybe a friend runs a company already you could invoice via them? Maybe you just risk it and create your own invoice in Word and hope for the best. Maybe keep the money purely in PayPal and use that to send the invoice. Only then when you withdraw it to your account do you take the risk.

 

I'm not advocating doing anything illegal btw, but I don't know what is required in your country - but I do know that if you want to sell games to portals that nearly all of them will expect paperwork and invoices, so get used to it. And if you want to do it a lot, you should do it properly.

[P.Uri.Tanner]

I use http://www.paymo.biz/ for time tracking and invoicing. Probably not the best solution around, but it worked well during my first steps as a freelance web developer so i keep using it.

There is also a great free plan!

[Solidus]

If we use paypal or another online merchant account, we can send emails requesting for money.  Does this count as an invoice as publishers require?

[rich]

Yes that should be enough for them.

[sbat]

I think it really depends on the country you are living in if you can create invoices and what information you have to put on them.

Here in germany, you can't simply create an invoice but have to register a company first (this is tax related).

 

Chris, I am by no means a EU tax expert , but I am pretty sure that this only relates to invoices used for the purpuse of VAT deduction. Even there I would suspect it is fine, as long as invalid tax credit is not requested. 

[sbat]

Hi, 

 

One sponsor want to invoice from me, how to do it? I am not company and i can not make invoices... i am only hobbist... Please help me. 

 

What country are you from (if this is not a secret)?

 

My personal opinion is that it only worth thinking about, if you are invoicing company within the same country or block (like EU). Because in that case invoice can have a specific tax meaning for both ends for VAT or equiwalent. 

 

In case of international trade, it is 99% probability that they only need invoice to account for payment as business expense. And maybe to establish that payment is international (so they don't need to withhold any VAT).

 

If receiving payments for one-off services by unregistered private inviduals is legal in your country, I strongly suspect that writing a piece of paper that essentially only says "you owe me 200 muney, please pay now!" is legal as well. 

[-AAG-]

I made one with Pay-Pal for Jeux Games. Just click the invoice button and fill in some blanks. I got paid instantly too.

[Raiper34]

I used this http://freeinvoicemaker.com/ its pretty simple

[shanatron]

The publisher I sold my game requested an invoice by paypal, it was really easy

[-AAG-]

Thanks for the Invoice Maker link. Pretty neat!

[NokFrt]

But can I? Because I am not tradesman or etc... Is this legal? 

 

I'm quite sure that you can't make invoices if you don't have your own business - you don't need a company but you must be registered as a tradesman. And you must be VAT registered if you are from EU and you want to sell a service to another company in EU (outside your country) or outside EU.

 

You should probably ask in your tax office what to do.

[remvst]

I'm quite sure that you can't make invoices if you don't have your own business - you don't need a company but you must be registered as a tradesman. And you must be VAT registered if you are from EU and you want to sell a service to another company in EU (outside your country) or outside EU.

 

You should probably ask in your tax office what to do.

Some people are not subject to VAT, you know...

[rich]

I'm quite sure that you can't make invoices if you don't have your own business - you don't need a company but you must be registered as a tradesman. And you must be VAT registered if you are from EU and you want to sell a service to another company in EU (outside your country) or outside EU.

 

This is very very specific to the country (and tax laws) you live in. The comment above doesn't apply at all to the UK for example, but I'm sure it does for some other countries. So definitely don't just go on a blanket answer from this forum, it might be utterly wrong for where you live. Ask your tax office.

[semaj454]

Well, there are lots of invoice resources that you can use. I specifically recommend that you invoice him using Google docs. But if you want to invoice him all in one place, you should use Paypal. I use Paypal mainly to invoice clients who would want to pay using that platform. What you should consider is the tax. You will have a problem if you won't pay, I hope you already knew that. I think your problem is not really on how to send the invoice, but the content of your invoice. You should consider a piece of advice from an accountant.