VAT - Trading and Shipping

[manxfella]

Nasty question, so my apologies for the vague title. Here's the scenario:

UK company sells to a Non EU company, goods are held in France at that point and are not shipped out to the Non EU customer. Non EU company then sells the goods onward to a customer in Holland so the goods are shipped from France to Holland.

Normally if selling from EU to Non EU then there's no VAT, but normally the goods are then shipped EU to Non EU, if the goods are not shipped then is there a VAT liability?

Likewise normally Non EU selling to EU, there's no VAT, but again if the goods are already in the EU and are merely shipped from one EU country to another, is that a VAT liability. Throw in this is all done via eBay...

Any comments welcomed, this is just an example scenario, there's a similar onw involving an NL company instead of a UK company, but the process is the same. Many thanks

 

[manxfella]

to my original query, just about established that if there is no documented proof of export then there would be VAT implications in the scenario selling from an EU country business to an non EU country business, but that raises the question...

...if a Netherlands company sold to Non EU country but goods were retained in EU, it would charge the Non EU company the VAT element, let's assume the goods are and remain in France. If the Non EU company then sells the goods to a Germany company, and the goods go France/Germany, what if any are the VAT implications...

Reply if you can, I may have jumped out the window by then, but...

 

[geester]

Why where the goods held in France, if France was not their end destination? This is what the VAT office will want to know also if you sold them to a NON Eu country you have to prove the goods arrived their!

I know as we export around 98% of our goods to America, Canada and Australia and we just had a VAT inspection and they wanted us to prove that all exports went to end destination.

 

[manxfella]

Just using those as examples. Real world scenario is that I have an associated company in Holland, it wants to sell goods to a non EU company that trades on ebay. At the present time the goods are in Holland. The non EU company expects to sell the goods and will ship them from Holland, customer could be EU or non EU. Goods are brand new, so second hand rule doesn't apply, although in some cases the reverse charge mechanism might.

Fairly convinced that if the goods don't leave EU then Dutch company will have to charge the VAT, but still haven't figured out what the non EU company will have to do if it sells within the EU.

Fun...

 

[geester]

If the goods stay in Holland YOU will have to prove you charged VAT on your export to Holland. The way round it is to get the Dutch company a VAT number and put this on your invoice and do not charge VAT.

 

[chrisbarnes86]

Not sure if this helps you or not (too late to get my head around it) but I store products for a company in Canada and act as their UK and European shipping hub. We were advised by HMRC that we have to charge them UK VAT as our trade is within Europe.

 

[manxfella]

Have definitely come to the conclusion that if the goods are in an EU country, if they are sold to a Non EU company but are not exported outside the EU for any reason then VAT would have to be applied based on the relevant EU country [i.e. UK 20% NL 19% I think etc]. I still need to read up on whether the Non EU company can reclaim the VAT as a non domiciled trader.

So, now we have a Non EU company which holds goods in an EU country, now if that company sells them to a third party outside the EU, again no problem...no VAT. Let's play secenario again, goods are in Holland, my non EU company has already paid NL VAT, and sells to a French customer, so that the goods are shipped Holland/France. Does the non EU company have to register for VAT in NL and raise VAT invoice, or is this a no VAT issue still?

Getting there