If you're VAT-registered and selling digital products — ebooks, online courses, downloadable templates, software — to UK consumers, you charge UK VAT in the normal way, but selling digital services to consumers in other countries brings in separate rules (the place of supply is often where the customer is, not where you are), which is a different and more complex area than selling physical goods internationally.
This catches out sellers moving from physical products into digital ones, since the VAT treatment genuinely isn't the same — a digital download sold to a customer in France, for example, can require accounting for VAT in a completely different way than a physical item shipped to the same customer. Below the UK VAT registration threshold you don't charge VAT on anything, digital or physical, but once you're registered, digital products need their own specific check rather than assuming the same rules that apply to your physical stock apply automatically. If you're adding digital products alongside physical stock, or thinking about it, it's worth checking the VAT treatment before you launch them, not after your first sale.
We check the VAT treatment for digital products before you launch them, so your first sale isn't a surprise.
Talk to an AccountantIf you're VAT-registered and selling digital products — ebooks, online courses, downloadable templates, software — to UK consumers, you charge UK VAT in the normal way, but selling digital services to consumers in other countries brings in separate rules (the place of supply is often where the customer is, not where you are), which is a different and more complex area than selling physical goods internationally.