Newsletter Autumn 2014

Return of services

When you sell services to businesses in other countries, the sale will be outside the scope of UK VAT. You don’t charge VAT, but you must report the sale value in box 6 on your VAT return.

If the sale is to a VAT registered business in another EU country, the sale must also be reported on the EC sales list (ESL). If your customer is not a business, the sale will not go on the ESL, but from 2015 such sales could affect your liability to register for VAT in the customer’s country (see “More about MOSS”).

If your customer is located outside the EU, you don’t report the sale on the ESL, but the value of the sale must still go in box 6 on your VAT return.

These distinctions are easy to get wrong, so do ask us if you have any doubts about how to report international sales.