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Structure of corporate groups in the translation industry, related issues to do with contact details
Thread poster: Sebastian Witte
Sebastian Witte
Sebastian Witte  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 11:57
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
Feb 23, 2015

Dear all,

We keep having problems with finding out who the actual group company is that will be responsible for paying our invoice.

There is also the problem that corporate groups in the translation industry have a tendency to post jobs/inquire with Central Western translators posing as Central Western hemisphere companies of their groups when the actual company behind it transpires to be from a low-budget, high-risk country (high risk of default).

These th... See more
Dear all,

We keep having problems with finding out who the actual group company is that will be responsible for paying our invoice.

There is also the problem that corporate groups in the translation industry have a tendency to post jobs/inquire with Central Western translators posing as Central Western hemisphere companies of their groups when the actual company behind it transpires to be from a low-budget, high-risk country (high risk of default).

These things can be problematic when quoting rates, this time the other way round.

Any ideas how to handle these things? Any special websites to share or anything?

Could we maybe improve the helpfulness factor of the Blue Board's contact details section, etc., as regards shedding some light on the respective corporate group structures a bit?

Sometimes it's hard to find out whether a given business partner from the corporate realm of the customer's organization has the status of a registered business. What if after your receiving their PO they transpire to be just a branch office of a bigger company?

There is the issue whether to quote the specific partner from the customer's organization a rate that includes VAT, which depends on location (Germany/EU/non-EU) and in some cases also the partner's entrepreneurial status (do they have a VAT ID?).

Once you have more time (quoting usually occurs in a rather time-critical environment in our industry) and find out you do have to charge them VAT, they might say the invoice is not in line with the quote.

First idea: A colleague suggested listing the individual locations of the offices or subsidiaries belonging to the corporate realm of the international agency under the Blue Board record for that international agency. May I add: this would if feasible have to include information on their legal status and their VAT ID, should they have one, or otherwise "VAT ID: n/a".

Best regards,

Sebastian Witte
www.jwstrans.net


[Edited at 2015-02-23 12:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 


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Structure of corporate groups in the translation industry, related issues to do with contact details






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