Q. My company provides website hosting for businesses based in the UK and in other countries. For VAT purposes is this treated as a sale of goods or services?

A. There is an easy rule of thumb to decide whether something is goods or services for VAT purposes: can you pick it up and hold it? Yes: goods, No: services. Website hosting can't be physically picked-up therefore it's a service. There are some complex VAT rules for selling services across international borders. You need to know whether your customer is in business or not. Broadly if the customer in another country is a business you do not charge VAT. We need to talk through the detail of what you declare on your invoice and what evidence to collect from your customer.