Do I charge VAT to an American company?

Forum Categories INTERNATIONAL VAT ON CROSS-BORDER TRANSACTIONS Do I charge VAT to an American company?

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  • #55645
    MKJB
    Member

    I have my own logistics company and have done work for a company based in USA.
    I have collected goods in UK and shipped to Spain. Do I charge them VAT?
    Thanks in advance

    #56008
    cameraman
    Member

    Hiya, yes you do. Unless the entirety of the work you have done for them was carried out outside the UK or EU, then you need to charge VAT. I stand to be corrected by an expert if the case but I’m 99.9% sure that’s correct.

    #56009
    Spidersong
    Member

    Unfortunately following the reply above it’s in the 0.1% range that you’re looking. Freight Transport is a ‘General Rule’ supply which means that when it’s supplied to a business customer the supply takes place where the customer belongs (VAT Act 1994, Section 7A 2 (a)) Meaning that the place of supply of transport services provided to a US customer would be the US. So no UK VAT to charge.

    Although you do need to be clear on what ‘based in the US’ may mean – Amazon is based in the US but if I shipped stuff for their UK branch then I’d be making a supply in the UK. So the place of supply will depend on the place of belonging of the business establishment most closely linked with the supply.

    Some general discussion of the rules is found in this internal HMRC Manual:
    https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-place-of-supply-transport/vatpostr3620

    And if you’re doing a lot of international work then the table later in the manual here: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-place-of-supply-transport/vatpostr3640
    will give a useful cross check. In this case the second table where the transport is from UK to France matches your situation (Spain being an EU member state same as France), and as you can see from the fifth line transporting from UK to an EU member state for a non-EU business customer is outside the scope of both UK and EU VAT (at least until they sort out how they’ll apply VAT and the place of supply after Brexit).

    #56010
    cameraman
    Member

    I stand corrected. Thank you for that. Nothing about VAT is simple from what I can gather!

    #56011
    MKJB
    Member

    Hi, thanks for the reply.
    The American company is in Miami and don’t have branches/office anywhere else, solely in the US.

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