Jason Croke

If you don't investigate with the agent and have the imports corrected, the risk is that whoever is using your EORI number is doing so on purpose to avoid having to pay import VAT. If it is a one-off situation then probably no harm but if you continue to see repeated use of your EORI by other traders, you must get this resolved else during a VAT inspection, HMRC may attribute those imports to you - and the knock on effect of that is HMRC could accuse you of understating your own sales. For example, if you import £1,000 goods into UK, you postpone £200 VAT and declare this on your VAT return and you make sales of those goods for say £2,000 but your postponed import statement shows you importing £10,000 of goods of which you say only £1,000 belongs to you - and HMRC could ask "if you imported £10,000 of goods, why are you only showing £2,000 of sales on your VAT return....are you hiding some of your sales?" HMRC are correct in that you don't report these transactions on your VAT return, but equally, don't do nothing, don't just ignore it, this needs fixing.

I think you are going to need to call the VAT helpline on 0300 200 3700 or if calling from outside the UK, +44 2920 501 261 Clearly something is not right here. that you or your colleagues could not access your VAT account sort of suggests that someone else has accessed your VAT account and changed the logins. I've never seen HMRC change a taxpayers login without letting the taxpayer know. Not sure what you mean by "accounts have been deleted", do you mean the VAT Account/ability to file VAT returns? If so, when HMRC write to a taxpayer and the letter is returned as "not at this address", then HC can lock down the VAT account, that is, you can still login but are unable to see any returns or file any returns, so have you changed address since registering for VAT and not told HMRC? It may then also follow that if HMRC think you have moved or disappeared and HC cannot contact you, then HMRC may have stopped the refund and prevented any more VAT returns from being filed as a precaution/security measure. Or it could be a genuine technical glitch, but whatever it is, you are going to need to speak to HMRC, and then you should be able to see what the issue is and resolve it.

An annoying part of the VAT legislation is that an "exemption" is not the same as saying a supply is "exempt". Not your fault, blame the legislators. Your supply will either be standard rated/UK VAT charged or else outside the scope of VAT. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-vat-rules-if-you-supply-digital-services-to-private-consumers In essence if your customer is B2B then your supply is outside the scope of VAT, no VAT is charged on your invoice and customer in UK accounts for VAT themselves under reverse charge rules. If customer is B2C, then you are required to register for UK VAT and charge UK VAT. When reading the above link/guidance, read it carefully and in full, not just bits of it. For example, the first section states "If you are a business making supplies of digital services to UK consumers, those supplies are liable to UK VAT", which is correct, but note it refers to a "consumer" which means B2C, you have to read much further down by stating "If you accept that your customer is in business, the supply does not come within the scope of these business-to-consumer arrangements. With a cross-border business-to-business supply the customer will be responsible for accounting for any VAT due to the tax authorities in their country."

Yes, you need to manually add the VAT service to your government gateway/account. When manually adding the VAT service, the question asking if you have submitted a return or not, your answer is no (because you've not filed a return as yet), there is no further question about your last VAT return, in fact this should be the last question it asks you, so answer "no" and as long as all your other answers are correct (date of registration, postcode of business, etc) then it'll add the VAT service straight away. I agree it's not logical, you applied for VAT via your gateway, during the application it states you'll be automatically enrolled for MTD and then once the VAT number is issued, you have to manually add the VAT service to your gateway.

The place of supply of services rules are what you need, Brexit has not changed those rules (so the same place of supply rules for services that you use in Netherlands, are the same rules the UK uses). Default position is the place of supply of services (when B2B) is where the customer is based, so your sale would be outside the scope of Netherlands VAT and the customer is to account for VAT under reverse charge in the UK. There are some exceptions to this rule, such as if your services related to land (geological surveys for example) or if you are hosting an event/exhibition in the UK. You don't mention what services you are offering but am assuming they fall under the default rules. The UK customer who is VAT registered would receive your invoice and reverse charge on their UK VAT return, the UK customer who is not VAT registered, your invoice to them would also be reverse charge and count towards their (the UK customers) VAT registration threshold. There is no requirement for you to register for UK VAT unless you are offering land/exhibition related services. HMRC guidance on place of supply of services https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-place-of-supply-of-services-notice-741a

Are you sure the address you are using is correct (ie, the address for the UTR and the address as per Companies House, they match what you are typing onto the screen for the VAT registration application?). It is usually the address that causes the issue (ie, registered office may be different to trade address), also check that the company name you are typing in is exactly as per Companies House (for example if you are Limited or Ltd or Ltd. (full stop at end). Failing that, it might be an IT glitch, at the bottom of the page where it says "the detail entered do not match...." there is a "problem with this page?" prompt, click on that and you can send a message to HMRC IT, explain your problem and someone should email you back with potential solutions.

You would treat the sales invoice to the UK customer as a zero rated sale as you have proof of export/goods left the UK. The value on your sales invoice would be the gross amount/cost to you, which would be the net price you quoted for the goods plus the 23% Irish VAT and the freight agents handling fee. So for example if the goods were valued at £1,000 we add £230 Irish VAT to give a gross value of £1,230 and this goes into Box 6 of the UK VAT return as the net value and £Nil for Box 1 as it has been treated as a zero rated export in your VAT return. In other words, treat as a zero rated export but make sure you inflate the price to cover the cost of the irrecoverable Irish VAT.

Agree, this is becoming both a major issue/hinderance to businesses. The whole foundation of VAT is based on the ability to check that a supplier is VAT registered and not trying to commit fraud. The right to reclaim input tax is on the basis the invoices are correctly issued. Such checks and confidence cannot be achieved when nobody can rely upon the answers supplied by the online VAT checker. How does this work for those who want to import goods into the UK if the freight agents can't verify VAT numbers, online marketplaces will not allow you trade unless you have a VAT number and they will use the VAT checker to verify your status (OMP's rarely accept just a VAT certificate alone as that just means you were VAT registered in the past, not necessarily today) The UK economy shrank by 0.3% last quarter (in the news today), what proportion of that is down to traders waiting for VAT numbers or having valid VAT number that others can check? After nearly a year the problem should have been fixed by now (it used to work until the switch to the new platform, it's a platform issue). Sorry to moan HMRC Admin, not your fault I know, but this really is hurting traders, if they can't sell, they can't pay VAT or other taxes and HMRC's only purpose is to collect/protect the revenue, and this issue is doing neither.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/vat-energy-saving-materials-relief-improving-energy-efficiency-and-reducing-carbon-emissions/outcome/summary-of-responses Battery storage will be included in the zero rating, with effect February 2024. Note that a zero rate of VAT does not mean suppliers will lower their prices, often suppliers will keep the price the same or reduce price slightly, studies have indicated that introducing a zero rate does not equal a significant reduction in price (ie, cost of living, inflation, material price rises and similar often counter act any cut in VAT).