Jay Cooke

I am a tax agent with many hundreds of clients we do VAT returns for. We never use the clients gateway login details, with a new client we send an email link to client which they click on, this link asks client to log into their own gateway and one logged in, client authorises us to be their agent. It might be that the Accountants you are using want to do this process for you as a convenience, but nothing here that cannot be dealt with by clear communications and explaining to you that you will get a link from the Accountant and click on the lick, etc. There are some things the agent cannot do with their agent access, for example they cannot access postponed import VAT statements, again, client should be instructed on how to login and download the postponed import statements and then send them to the Accountant. Again, the Accountant might be trying to be helpful and convenient by logging into your gateway to download the postponed statements to save you doing it, but if you don't want to give them your logins, then don't, the agents can still do what they need to do, they just need to explain that you may have to download certain things from time to time. It's unlikely fraud, more likely convenience (to the agent) and (minor) convenience for the client, but HMRC are correct that agents should not be asking for login details.

Read this guidance here : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-use-a-vat-margin-scheme-if-you-import-from-or-export-to-countries-outside-the-uk "You cannot use a margin scheme when you i) buy goods from Great Britain and sell in Northern Ireland, unless they are works of art, collectors’ items or antiques or are second hand vehicles or ii) import goods other than works of art, collectors’ items or antiques into the UK or iii) sell goods which have been imported into EU member states, and which you have got somebody to collect on your behalf If you import works of art, antiques and collectors’ item" The fundamental issue is that for margin scheme to apply, the goods you buy cannot have had VAT charged when you buy them, so buying off a UK based trader/member of the public, you will have proof no VAT was charged because there will be no VAT shown on the sellers sales invoice. But when importing goods from EU or USA, whilst the seller may not charge VAT, as soon as the goods enter the UK, they will be subject to import VAT by Customs, the freight agent/courier will probably pay this and recharge it back to you but the point is VAT has been charged on these purchases and so fail the conditions for margin scheme. Certain collector items are exempt from these rules and margin scheme can still apply, a list of definitions are found in the link below but not that clothing and records meet the definitions : https://www.gov.uk/vat-margin-schemes/eligibility

You need to call the VAT Online Helpline, this telephone helpline service deals with logging in/online issues and is usually available between 8am and 6pm UK time, excluding weekends of course. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/online-services-helpdesk The person calling should be the owner/Director or responsible person for finance, it cannot be an agent/external Accountant. When calling there will be a series of security questions about the business, VAT registration number, date of VAT registration, address/postcode, the VAT period of last return filed and the amount of VAT due/refund in Box 5, there may be other additional questions as they randomise the questions but the point is whoever calls needs to have their VAT returns and accounts in front of them. Once security is passed, the helpline person can cancel the old mobile number and set it so that when you first login, the next screen will ask you to set a new telephone number for receiving security codes. It is a pain, this helpline has a slightly less wait time than the general helpline but it is the only way to get this fixed. Your gateway account is like a bank account, HMRC need to be satisfied the account is secure, hence the use of 2-step verification which is common with banking apps and most other websites and apps, so whilst the process to reset things is painful, it is for your benefit and security. In terms of consolidating your portals, presumably you are saying you have a gateway for payroll and separate gateway login for CT and a separate login for VAT....that is a bit messy, when speaking to the online Helpline, ask them about how you can unlink those taxes from their existing gateways so that you can then add all of these taxes to one gateway, the helpline may require you to pass additional security tests when talking about another gateway for another tax.

Sounds like the US reseller takes ownership of the goods in the UK and therefore is required to register for UK VAT. Going through your process : The Supplier delivers goods and services direct to End User - Czech Republic to UK Goods are shipped from Czech to UK end user but the importer of record is you, the UK distributor. The Distributor, us, are billed by the Supplier, we are also classed as the importer and are charged import duties and VAT. Supplier will issue zero rated invoice to you (distributor) and as you are the designated importer of the goods, you become the owner of those goods. We know you are the owner of the goods because the Czech company have invoiced you for the goods. You will either be charged the import VAT by the freight agent or more likely the freight agent has your EORI number and will put the import VAT you are liable for/owe to HMRC, to your postponed import VAT account (PIVA), if you do not know about PIVA then see this link https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-postponed-import-vat-statement Don't focus on the physical movement of the goods, there is only ONE physical movement (Czech to UK end user), but there is more than one change of legal ownership of those goods and for VAT we look at these changes of ownership as much as we look at the physical location of the goods...and this is perhaps why you are struggling with the answer...you are looking just at the goods and not the ownership chain. The Distributor invoices US based Reseller As you are the importer of record, you take ownership of the goods in the UK (confirmed by Czech billing you for the goods)....you then sell these goods to the USA, so although the goods have not physically moved from the UK location (the end user where the goods were delivered directly to), the ownership has changed hands twice, firstly from Czech to you in the UK and secondly when you sell to the USA. You cannot zero rate the sale to USA because to zero rate it, you need proof of export, as the goods are not leaving the UK, you will never have proof of export. So you'd charge UK VAT to the USA reseller. US based Reseller invoices UK based End User USA reseller acquires goods in the UK (from you) and makes an onward sale of those goods to a UK customer, as the USA company is not a UK established company, then the VAT registration threshold is Nil, the £90k threshold only applies to UK companies. USA companies registers for UK VAT, charges UK VAT to end user and can also reclaim the VAT you charged them so USA are not out of pocket. 1. As a Distributor invoicing US Reseller for this order, would we be charging UK VAT? Yes, because you own some goods in the UK, you are selling them to a customer in the USA but the goods are not leaving the UK, without proof of export, the sale is standard rated. Section 6 here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-postponed-import-vat-statement 2. How would the End User account for VAT, if any? The end user will probably get an invoice from the USA with no VAT on it because the invoice will be wrong, but think about it... it should not be possible for a UK company to buy goods that are in the UK, VAT free. If end user went to PC World or Harrods and bought the goods they'd be charged VAT but here, because the supply chain is broken, the end user is obtaining goods VAT free. All you can do is protect your own position, as you are not exporting the goods then you cannot zero rate the goods to USA, the USA will not like that but then this whole supply chain should have been figured out before the transaction took place. On what basis would you zero rate your sale to USA if you are not exporting the goods? You cannot assume this post is entirely correct nor constitute advice, all depends on the details but from what you describe the supply chain/flow does not appear to be correct, if you have an Accountant then probably a good time to speak with them or if this is going to be a regular transaction, speak with a specialist freight consult who can set this up in a much more efficient manner for longer term benefits. The services aspect of the transaction - you stated the Czech sells both goods and services - services different rules for VAT but depends what those services are, if they are for example of installation services then there are different rules to if the services are say "software support", so its not possible to answer this question but in theory if Czech sells "services" to you and you sell to USA and USA sells back to UK then these could all be under reverse charge rules.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-reclaim-or-claim-vat-relief-on-cancelling-vat-registration-vat427 If the company has been struck off then it may not have a bank account, the VAT refund belongs to the company not the shareholders, so if the bank has been closed HMRC will struggle to write a cheque to an individual Director.

Guidance here, not every retailer offers a refund scheme and not all goods are eligible. https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-shopping/taxfree-shopping

What you pay for the rent is your expense (£4,500), what you charge the tenant is your income (£5,000) so in simple accounting terms you are making £500 profit each month on this deal. If you are charged VAT by the landlord (ie £4,500 + VAT) and you reclaim this currently, then that is fine as you were using the property for your own, taxable business activities....if you are now sub-letting that property to a tenant and if you do not charge VAT (rent is exempt) then you cannot reclaim the VAT you incur from the landlord, if you want to, you can charge VAT on the rent but to do this you must first notify HMRC, it called "opting to tax", once you opt to tax then you charge VAT on the rent (£5,000 + VAT) and you can also continue to reclaim the VAT charged to you by the landlord. If the property you are renting has no VAT charged to you by the landlord (ie, £4,500 no VAT), then as you are not incurring any VAT yourself on this property then you can sub-let without opting to tax and your rent to tenant would exempt (£5,000 no VAT) but that then also means your business becomes partially exempt (as you are now making taxable supplies and now also this exempt rent), you will need a partial exemption calculation and you may not be able to reclaim any input tax in relation to that property, whether that is an issue depends on whether you or the tenant are responsible for maintaining the property. Whether opting to tax is the right thing to do depends on the type of tenant you are seeking to occupy the property (new start-ups are not usually VAT registered and VAT will be an extra cost to them for example), you should perhaps have a conversation with your Accountant or else the links in this post should give you some clarity as to what works best for you. Link to partial exemption here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/partial-exemption-vat-notice-706 Link re. opting to tax https://www.gov.uk/guidance/opting-to-tax-land-and-buildings-notice-742a

If you are saying the club is not VAT registered but the bar is, then that would indicate that the bar is a separate legal entity (Ltd) to the sprots club which is likely going to be a limited by guarantee entity or some form of association or unincorporated body, but the point being is that a VAT registration belongs to the legal person/entity, so if the bar is VAT registered and the club is not, then there must be two different legal entities in play here. Why would you therefore need another Ltd to trade sports equipment? You already have a Limited company (the bar) that makes taxable sales and so why create another (third) company just to buy sports goods to sell or rent back to the main club? There are costs associated with setting up and maintaining companies, filing requirements, etc. But you can setup any number of companies if you want to, but comes back to the big question, why? If you are happy to have a NewCo that buys/sells sports equipment and you want to keep that trade separate from the bar (perhaps different ownership for example), many golf clubs often have the pro-shop as a separate company. You have used quotes marks for "trading entity", either the business is trading or it isn't, definitions can be found here https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20000 and you need to be comfortable with the definition of business income. Without details as to what you are buying, what scale, how often, costs involved and expected profits then it's difficult to say whether your plans are a business or not. But lets say the plan is to buy a new lawn mower costing £100k + £20k VAT for use by the Club and other clubs...NewCo could reclaim the VAT on the purchase and then would charge VAT on the hire/rental to the Club and other Clubs. That seems like a business which has regularity (monthly rental), consistency and purpose. Any such rent/hire fee would need to be market value where the supplier is VAT registered but the supply is made to a non-VAT registered business that is connected to the supplier (ie Club is connected to the NewCo). So you can't by the mower (in my example) and then rent it for £1 per year to the Club. See link here https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-valuation/vatval07300 You don't state what your role is at the club, a member is not necessarily on the committee, but if you are responsible for the financials of the Club then you really should be seeking advice from your Accountant or speak to the members as one of them will be a retired Accountant for sure!

If you register for VAT from May 2021, then you will owe output tax (VAT) on any sales you made from that date, as you are stating this is a voluntary registration (meaning you are below the VAT registration threshold but want to register anyway), if you register from May 2021 then you potentially owe a lot of money to HMRC for all sales since May 2021. Annual Accounting is not as simple as first seems, you will need to estimate the value of your sales and purchases and calculate the net VAT liability you owe to HMRC over a 12 month period and you then set up a direct debit to pay HMRC each month a set amount, regardless of what your actual sales/purchases are, you file a single annual return and make any balancing payment or if you are due a refund you would file the annual return and receive the refund at the time the annual return is filed. See this link, section 3.2 to read about how your annual return date is calculated. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-annual-accounting-notice-732#how-the-scheme-works

Since Brexit, the UK is not in the EU so UK is no longer required to issue invoices with "subject to reverse charge" although it is still helpful to include such wording if only because the recipient knows they have to do something on their VAT return.....but there is no legal requirement for a UK company to state reverse charge is applicable. The UK supplier of "due diligence services", if they are engaged to supply the service to your UK entity, then that should have been subject to UK VAT (UK supplier to UK customer). There is a separate argument as to whether the due diligence" services are land related services, if they are land related then the place of supply could be Germany but that would mean the UK supplier is required to register for VAT in Germany and charge German VAT. If you treat the invoice as reverse charge then there is no loss to the revenue/minimal risk, it would be an issue if you are partially exempt because you would be declaring output tax in Box 1 but not reclaiming the full amount in Box 4, perhaps query the VAT position with the supplier, it does not send a good message where you are seeking due diligence/professional services and the VAT treatment is not made clear to you (in terms of as to why no VAT has been charged)...maybe something as simple as the supplier has invoiced your German establishment but still no requirement on the UK to add "subject to reverse charge" on the invoice.