Non-English worded invoice?

[cambridgeshire]

Hi,
If you buy goods from a non-UK (but still EU-based - Hungarian, Slovakian, Polish, Slovenian etc.) wholesaler and they issue with an invoice that is not worded in English, can you still use that invoice in your bookkeeping? Is it accepted just as if it were a UK invoice? Or do you need to translate it and attach a translated copy? If so, can you translate it on your own or you need to use the services of a company specialised in translating etc.? (In our case unfortunately they are not able to issue English invoices as the wholeseller's invoicing software support only their own language...)
Thank you

 

[David Richards]

I know that if you issue an invoice in a foreign language, you have to be able to provide an English translation within 30 days if HMRC request one. It would seem reasonable to expect the same applies to purchase invoices.

 

[E Storey]

OMG! This reminded me so much of doing the European head office's payments. We kept getting invoices in Dutch!

Point is - you need to know what the invoice is for before you pay it. You probably already know that anyway, so just pencil in a brief translation, or staple it to the original. That way you have it for when the auditors turn up!

Also worth noting is, if you don't know what it's for, so don't pay, they'll eventually ring you up to chase payment! Not funny - seriously!

 

[cambridgeshire]

OMG! This reminded me so much of doing the European head office's payments. We kept getting invoices in Dutch!
Point is - you need to know what the invoice is for before you pay it. You probably already know that anyway, so just pencil in a brief translation, or staple it to the original. That way you have it for when the auditors turn up! Also worth noting is, if you don't know what it's for, so don't pay, they'll eventually ring you up to chase payment! Not funny - seriously!

Thank you, this is great info. Do you know by chance whether a sole trader can sell things in the UK he bought in another EU country or this kind of importing is possible for ltd's only?

 

[mr. mischief]

I used to run the finances for a multi-million leva contract in Bulgaria, and also one in roubles in FSU. So we got invoices in Cyrillic which is a completely different alphabet, never mind language.

We kept spreadsheet records of the nature of the goods or services provided, and also added extra text fields on the mainframe computer system when keying in the invoices.

We got inspected and were also audited / "due diligenced" to death during this period as my part of the business kept being spun off / sold / sold again. No-one ever raised a query on these invoices that I am aware of, so we must have done something right!