VAT of Google Adsense payments
All the European operations of Google Adsense are based in Ireland for tax purposes (Google AdSense Payments - VAT, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). Google has this VAT number: EU372000041.
When businesses and compananies declare their VAT to their local inland revenue authorities, they need the VAT registration number of each customer. If you are an Adsense publisher, you may need to check that Google don’t pay you VAT included in their payments.
In the UK, for instance, all traders registered for VAT who supply goods to traders registered for VAT in other European Union countries are required to provide lists of their EC supplies. These supplies are declared on an EC Sales List (ESL). Services, like Google Adsense’s, are not subject to this requirement.
In fact, the country code of Google’s VAT number, “EU”, isn’t included in the list of acceptable country codes of the leaflet “EC SALES LIST HELPFUL HINTS (ESL7)” of the HM Revenue & Customs.
The Inland Revenues’ ESL Unit (ESL Correction Unit, VIES Operations, 3SW Queens Dock, Liverpool, L74 4AA) confirmed that there is not a country involved in the EC that has the country code EU.