Question asked by Kathryn Pollitt 7 years ago
Hi,
I've just made a purchase from Apple and have been invoiced by Apple Distribution International based in Cork, Ireland (so an EU business). They do however have a GB VAT number and have charged VAT at 20%.
For VAT purposes, do I enter this with a VAT treatment of "Goods from EU Supplier" with VAT rate set to "20% standard rate"?
Thanks in advance, Kate
Slightly confusing - even the guy at HMRC had to look it up. Thanks for your help Tommy. Hopefully this will help others too.
Best answerHi Kathryn,
In this case, I would select Goods From EU supplier and set the VAT rate as manual; inputting the 20% VAT amount there.
I hope this helps!
Tommy
Thanks Tommy, will that still put the VAT amount in Box 4?
Hi Kathryn,
Yes, this will appear in Box 4.
Tommy
Great, thanks for your help
No problem at all!
Quick update: I've just managed to get through to HMRC (finally) and they have advised entering is as follows:
Goods from UK supplier at 20% standard rate
This is following the assumption that Apple shipped the goods into the UK and distributed it via a UK warehouse, thus making the UK the place of purchase and are therefore required to charge UK VAT at 20% (hence the GB VAT number).
They said to ignore the Ireland address as this is probably a localised Head Office rather than the place of purchase.
Hi Kathryn,
Ah I see! Thank you for the update! That definitely does sound more reasonable though both methods would have provided the same VAT amount on the return.
Much appreciated!
Tommy
Slightly confusing - even the guy at HMRC had to look it up. Thanks for your help Tommy. Hopefully this will help others too.
Best answerYes this is definitely correct, and arises from the big outcry with offshore companies not having to charge VAT for online services. So, regardless of the address of the supplier, if they charge you UK VAT it's because they have had to register here.
Tommy - you should never be able to enter a sum of VAT using the overseas VAT treatments and so there should be a warning. In this case, if you enter a manual VAT sum with the EU service, it still puts VAT in boxes 1 & 4 and the net in 6 & 7
You must 