When Does Using A Pseudonym Become Fraud?

[Foresty_Forest]

I'm an artist sole trader. I produce and sell art using my own real name and also a pseudonym. Two different products. Recently the Royal Mail has changed its CN22 customs form and requires a written name and address in block capitals. I regularly ship my pseudonym art to customers in America. I don't want these customers to see my real name. My preferred solution here is to enter my Inland Revenue business name or my pseudonym. Would that be considered fraudulent by the customs officials?

That leads to the broader question of the use of a pseudonym and can it ever be considered fraudulent? I know it's commonplace for artists, writers and actors to use a pseudonym. Banksy, perhaps one of the most famous. And recently author J K Rowling secretly published using the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, for instance.

 

[fisicx]

Those artists are not filling in a customs form. Not sure there is a simple answer. By law you have to publish your contact details on your site so hiding your name may not be an option.

 

[The Resolver]

No expert in Customs forms but one solution would appear to be to have someone you trust to be the sole shareholder/director of a new limited company who you contract with as your exclusive distributor. So XYZ Ltd sells original work of <pseudonym>. The transparency laws affecting websites simply require the name, registered office and registration number and statement registered in E gland and Wales of the limited company not you real name.However that may net down to more tax of course.

 

[The Resolver]

....I imagine the Customs Form simply wants identification of the entity selling and exporting the paintings i.e. the limited company.

 

[The Byre]

The short answer is that fraud becomes fraud the moment there is the intent to defraud.

When buying a product (book, painting, aardvark or widget) the customer must be given an entity from which they have bought the product. In the case of Robert Galbraith, the consumer is buying from a retailer and that retailer is dealing with a representative of the Bloomsbury Group. The true identity of Robert Galbraith is irrelevant.

Trying to remain anonymous in today's online world is difficult. A Ltd. has owners and directors
and a sole trader has to tel those he/she does business with who they are and where they can be found. The answer, like Robert Galbraith and Banksy, is to have an agent.

And not just creatives have agents - when I was running a sound and lighting company, the VERY FIRST thing I did was to get an agent. That agency immediately filled the calendar with four-to-five gigs a week.

In the film business, camera people, cinematographers and even key grips and gaffas have agents. Script supervisors, stills photographers, makeup artists, stuntmen, visual effect, CGI artists - they all have agents. It is not just directors and actors that have to have agents - you need a sales force and a negotiator on your side.

Look at it this way - the 10-20% the agent takes is less than the marketing budget for most manufactured luxury products out there.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Do well know artists like say Cliff Richard have a passport in their stage name or birth name

 

[The Byre]

Do well know artists like say Cliff Richard have a passport in their stage name or birth name

Everybody is different - some change their names, some keep their stage personas very separate. Some are WYSIWYG and are the same on stage/camera as they are in private, most are very different. General rule-of-thumb - Nearly all are the opposite of their stage personalities.

So the nicer and more pleasant they are on-camera, the nastier they are in reality (most star DJs). The edgier and more direct and forthright they are on camera, the more pleasant and accommodating and considerate they are in person (Germain Greer). The more intellectual and erudite they are on camera, the more stupid they really are (and visa versa!)

 

[Scalloway]

Do well know artists like say Cliff Richard have a passport in their stage name or birth name

Harry Rodger Webb changed his name by deed poll in 1980.

 

[The Resolver]

The more intellectual and erudite they are on camera, the more stupid they really are (and visa versa!)

I suspect Trump is a challenges to your theory

 

[paulears]

One of my jobs is arranging travel for actors, and loads forget that their passports are in their real names and I've booked tickets in their stage name. With actors, the usual contact sheet they fill out with the contract often has a box for passport name if travel is being arranged. Few change their names by deed poll. Some I've worked with for years I then discover really are somebody different. Some have real names better than their stage name!

 

[Foresty_Forest]

This was an interesting case, Artist Peter Doig was sued (unsuccessfully) because he refused to authenticate a painting that was signed 'Pete Edward Doige'. Presumably the owners were sure to make a decent price if they could prove Doig was Doige and had indeed painted it. My point is, if Doig for example had painted a load of 'pot boilers' and signed them off with a pseudonym, would he be defrauding the buyers of his pot boilers? His paintings sell for millions and it might be argued that he would be denying the owners of his pot boilers of a decent resale price if he didn't admit authorship?

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/peter-doig-trial-verdict-618932

Interesting replies BTW...

 

[2020Lawyer2020]

I doubt that was any kind of offence as there is no duty in law to authenticate something. Eg if I sold my old clothes on line and were famous and someone later wanted to force me to say I had been the original owner there is no legal duty to make that clear. That is the starting point wiht the Doige matter.

We have to break this down into different bits of law. As Resolver says if you chose to incorporate a company etc as suggested then the export details could be more anonymous subject to persons of significant control rules of UK company law if you controlled the company whether by shares or otherwise.

As a sole trader you have to declare yourself on invoices, websites, emails, purchase orders, forms and I am pretty sure customs forms.

On the broader question of pseudonymns it just depends on the context as to whether it breaches the law. You can have a stage name for acting purposes but if you have to sign a witness statement or a will or apply for a passport you will have legal obligations to make your identity clear.

I have been asked about this in a business context sometimes by big chains of stores - whether they can have two brands under same ownership but not be clear about that to customers. often a big chain buys another and keeps the purchased company' s limited name so you might have eg Wickes and B&Q looking like competitors but actually owned by the same com,pany (that is an invented example). Usually that is lawful but again it wll depend on context and how a name is being used.

For VAT by the way you cannot as a sole trader separate it out - I looked at this as I have my law firm (sole trader) and have some other business activities which are law related but they all have to come under the same VAT number which of course you can then search on line on the VAT register the EU keeps (currently) and HMRC lumps all the turnovers together although people can form limited companies for separate activities (and often do in businesses such as buying properties where you might have a special purpose vehicle limited company for each house which is bought).