Company News

ExploreExport 2015 Cardiff

27.10.2015

A team from Centurion VAT will be attending ExploreExport 2015 at Cardiff’s SWALEC Stadium on 12th November and be on hand to discuss the VAT compliance risks in selling goods or services to customers outside the UK. And as a one off conference promotion on the day we will be offering businesses the opportunity to sign up for a full day VAT compliance review at a 25% saving from our standard rates.  So please feel free to pop along to our stand and chat through any issues or questions you may have with one of our friendly team.

We continue to see the impact of HMRC’s approach which, in most cases, leads to a financial cost specifically where businesses do not hold the correct documentation to prove goods have actually left the UK. The cost can be significant e.g. we have experience of a business with a turnover of less than £10m who were issued with assessments, penalties and interest of just over £1m; fortunately, with some work that figure was reduced substantially.  A major area of risk is where a business supplies goods on an ex-works basis and if this is how part of your supply chain is organised then seeing us at ExploreExport 2015 might be an opportune time to check whether you have ‘all your ducks in a row’.

The supply of services overseas is in many ways is much more complex than moving goods but historically has probably been of less interest to HMRC.   However, there is still scope to get things wrong e.g. services in connection with land are normally treated as taking place where the land is situated. Furthermore, with tax authorities in the EU and indeed the rest of the world looking for ways to increase revenue we are increasingly seeing certain digital services supplied overseas to private individuals falling foul of requirements to register and account for VAT in the country of the customer.  This concept was introduced in the EU at the start of this year and the concept of the Mini One Stop Shop (‘MOSS’) came into existence; but taxing digital services was already in place in Norway and South Africa, and more countries have followed suit including South Korea (1 July 2015) and Japan (1 October 2015) with others such as Australia, India and Canada considering some form of digital services tax.  So if you are involved in providing services overseas, particularly to private individuals, you need to ensure you have the correct procedures in place to be VAT compliant and we would be happy to discuss any queries you have.


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