Brightbox Blog » business http://blog.brightbox.co.uk Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:30:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 VAT camp http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/vat-camp http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/vat-camp#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:00:14 +0000 Jeremy Jarvis http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/vat-camp Dull

This could well be *the* dullest subject to blog about – but since there always seems to be a fair amount of confusion over VAT (Value Added Tax) and to whom it should be charged, especially when selling goods or services internationally, I thought it would be useful to explain how we’ll be implementing VAT into our payments system for Brightbox.

No? well ok, don’t worry. But if you’re interested or have nothing to do, read on…

In simple terms, VAT is a sales tax (17.5% in the UK) collected on sales and paid on purchases with the balance paid (or reclaimed if negative) to HMRC. Sounds simple, huh? Not really. In fact it’s seemingly impossible for even qualified accountants to keep up with the innumerable rules, exclusions, special exceptions and so on which make up the law on VAT.

Even greater confusion occurs when it comes to selling goods or services internationally. As a VAT registered business in the UK, it seems we have to treat sales to customers in the following regions/categories differently:

  • UK-based customers (businesses and individuals) = VAT is added
  • EU countries (individuals and non VAT registered businesses) = VAT is added
  • EU countries (businesses with VAT registration number) = VAT is not added
  • Non-EU countries (businesses and individuals) = VAT is not added

I’m (thankfully) no expert, but based on what I’ve read and advice from our accountant – this is how we’ll be incorporating VAT into our payments system.

Thanks for reading :)

]]> http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/vat-camp/feed 3 The “branding” of Brightbox http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/the-branding-of-brightbox http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/the-branding-of-brightbox#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:43:36 +0000 Jeremy Jarvis http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/the-branding-of-brightbox As you might have noticed, we’ve started to roll out a new logo. Up until a week or so ago, Brightbox was just a name we were using – there was no “branding” or logo as such, so I thought it was about time I put my designer hat on and came up with something! After days of playing about into Fireworks with different shapes and styles it was all looking either too clinical or “corporat-ey” or too “web2.0-ey” – just couldn’t find something that worked.

So, resorting to the good old pen and paper, I tried just sketching out a couple of ideas.

Three minutes and two pages later, there it was :)

From rough sketch to finished “box” took 4 steps (and another 4 minutes):

  1. “Scanned” in the sketch by taking a photo on my mobile (Sony Ericsson K800i)
  2. Sent the photo to my Mac via Bluetooth
  3. Increased the brightness/contrast in Photoshop to make the lines clearer (flickr)
  4. Imported the image into Illustrator and used the “Trace” command to simplify the edges and convert to vector (flickr)

Done. Not bad for 10 minutes work or so?

]]> http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/the-branding-of-brightbox/feed 0