Jay Cooke

There is a special form/process for refunds to go to an overseas bank account, you cannot add a foreign bank account to your government gateway, the gateway only accepts UK bank accounts.. Follow this link https://www.gov.uk/vat-repayments Scroll down to the section titled "Repayments to an overseas bank account", in that section there is a link which takes you to the government gateway login page, login and then follow the on screen process, the process also allows you to cancel the cheque you have already received and replace it with a refund to the overseas bank account. If your agent has already followed this process then your agent may need to contact HMRC to see what the delay/problem might be.

Generally a UK establishment exists if either i) the place where essential management decisions are made and the business’s central administration is carried out is in the UK or ii) the business has a permanent physical presence with the human and technical resources to make or receive taxable supplies in the UK (ie, employees in the UK). Neither of those conditions sound like they are met based on what you've posted here (no control in UK, no employees in UK). HMRC can accept a company which is incorporated in the UK as being established in the UK, as long as the company can receive business type supplies at its registered office (what HMRC call a principal place of business), if it is a virtual office or Accountants office then it is unlikely to meet the HMRC view of UK establishment as I doubt a virtual office can receive supplies on behalf of the business. As a side note, you are not allowed to use a virtual office or registered office for VAT registrations (whereas you can use a virtual office for incorporation). https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-registration-manual/vatreg03550

When on the government gateway page where it shows "no return required", scroll down and click on the "page not working" link? That link opens a page where you can send a message to IT Technical Team who can deal with glitches and bugs like this and they are generally very helpful and quick. As a side note, HMRC may have frozen the VAT account and when this happens, the ability to file returns is removed (as a security precaution), if the client has moved address or if HMRC letters have been returned in the post by the royal mail, HMRC will flag the VAT number as a missing trader (as in, we don't know where they are), hence freezing the account. If that might be the issue, you need to contact the VAT IT Helpline (rather than the VAT registrations helpline) and the IT helpdesk should be able to reactivate the account (but will probably require the taxpayer to make this call for security purposes). The IT helpdesk is not the same as the IT technical team mentioned in my first paragraph, the IT technical Team deal with glitches, the IT Helpdesk deal with logging onto gateway and unfreezing accounts.

What are you invoicing them for at this Greek address? Goods or services. If goods, where are the goods when you sell them? It is common for a business to have more than one VAT number across the EU, so a Greek company with a German VAT number is okay, but you need to get your supply correct, so that is why it matters to understand what it is you are selling.

You are already VAT registered, so your friend cannot transfer their VAT number to you. You cannot have more than one VAT number per entity, so you could set up a new company and that could take over your friends VAT number. If you take over a VAT number you also take on any history of that number, so if your friend has VAT debts or has made errors and HMRC later discover these errors, then it is you that will be liable, not your friend.

You can call HMRC from an overseas telephone. Outside UK: +44 2920 501 261 If you did not supply bank details to HMRC, they will issue a cheque, a cheque is sent in the post, if you are overseas it may take 15-30 days to reach you, depending on where you are, the cheque may also get lost in the post. If you have supplied bank details before filing your return then this can only be fixed by contacting HMRC to find out why the refund has not been received....I would always check that your bank details are correct before calling HMRC as that is the first thing they will ask/check.