Spring 2011 Newsletter Content Leading article... Anything up his sleeve? General tax... Relaxed association File under 'e' Research costs? Give early A tax on houses Pension changes Holiday entitlement EISy money VAT... 20:20 vision Horses for courses? Do it yourself That's entertainment All in the contract? Where am I? Law items... What's in a title? The privileged few Called to account Don't mince words

Where am I? If you do business abroad, or your customers are foreign, you have to worry about the 'place of supply' rules for VAT. Are you supposed to charge UK VAT to foreigners, or do you have to deal with the local tax authorities in another country? Or can you treat your sales as not VATable in the UK, and get your foreign customer to account for local VAT using the 'reverse charge'? There were big changes to the rules for business to business services on 1 January 2010. These meant that more sales were covered by the reverse charge, which is simpler than the other two options, but such sales now have to be reported to HMRC on a quarterly Sales List. There's been a further change on 1 January 2011. In 2010, supplies of entertainment and educational services were still dealt with where the supply physically took place. That could mean a requirement to register in the other country if you travelled there to give a concert or a lecture. Now, business-to-business supplies of this sort are 'where the customer belongs', rather than 'where they happen', so the reverse charge applies. There is an exception for supplies of a right of admission. So if you are the entertainer supplying your services to the promoter of an event, your supply is reverse charged. If you are the promoter selling tickets, the supply is 'where the event is', even if the customers are in business. If you want to check that you are doing the right thing with foreign supplies, including filing Sales Lists, we can help.