TVA spares

[springbank]

Hi,

      I am told that if you have a french tva number that certain companies in the UK dont charge the vat. We are looking at some spares for our Landrover which is a work vehicle and we were wondering if we had to pay tva here and then claim it back or is there some sort of agreement in place between France and the UK. Any clues to this would be much appreciated, 

Cheers Graham 

[Val_2]

We are TVA french registered and whenbuying machinery/tools etc in the UK we have always bought Zero rated from the companies there who in turn take our number and issue us with a zero rated invoice/receipt. HOWEVER this only applies to items delivered to France, if you go and collect in person then you have to pay VAT in the UK at that rate and claim it back on your french accounts. We have other services supplied from the UK with VAT invoices and our accountant lists those seperately in our accounts and  it goes into our tax returns. Someone else is bound to have had a difference experience but that is ours and has been for many years in France.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="springbank"]

Hi,

      I am told that if you have a french tva number that certain companies in the UK dont charge the vat. We are looking at some spares for our Landrover which is a work vehicle and we were wondering if we had to pay tva here and then claim it back or is there some sort of agreement in place between France and the UK. Any clues to this would be much appreciated, 

Cheers Graham 

[/quote]

Yes. In theory at least, all UK VAT-registered suppliers must do VAT-free (or rather VAT-0%) supplies to VAT-registered businesses in the EU. HOWEVER, they are not obliged to 0-rate the supply at the point of sale - TVA certification is too easy to forge, so some businesses will retain the TVA and refund it once it has been accepted by HMRC. I always did this for a new customer. Bear in mind that, if the EU VAT registration turns out to be phoney, then the supplier is liable for the VAT. Then again, some cannot be bothered and simply won't do 0% supplies.

Also, you must declare the supply on your TVA return, and pay 19.6% TVA - which you will immediately reclaim, of course.

If you pay 17.5% TVA (to HMRC, via a UK supplier) then you can't reclaim it from the French TVA people, but you must complete a form for HMRC - who will pay you in sterling.....

As Val says, this only applies to supplies delivered to France - if you collect, then broadly speaking (there are exceptions), you must pay the "local" VAT and reclaim.

There certainly are lots of agreements in place - VAT is a EU tax!