UK VAT - purchasing services from EU (place of supply)

alexr

Hi,

I hope a kind soul can help as I'm struggling with this. Assume company A is a UK VAT registered company. Company B is a EU VAT registered company. I've read around the notes regarding "place of supply" from HMRC (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-place-of-supply-of-services-notice-741) as well as from the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rules-topic/where-tax_en) and I still have questions ...

(1) Assume company A owns computing equipment which it moves and is then hosted in the EU in a datacenter by company B which charges a fee for keeping the equipment online. Company A thus buys services from company B.

• According to the above notes, the place of supply is the UK (the general rule for B2B since none of the special rules apply). Is that correct?
• If yes then Company A needs to apply reverse charge and fill in boxes 1,3,4,6,7 on the UK VAT return. Is that correct?
• What should be the VAT rate on the invoice? 0% or 20% or the local VAT rate of the EU country?

(2) In Wave, if it's a reverse charge then I would deal with it as explained int he articles here https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/sections/360004035052 but what if the reverse charge does not apply (e.g. if the place of supply is not the UK)?

Many thanks in advance!

AlexL

Hi @alexr . As we're not experts on the UK/EU tax code, I'm afraid I wouldn't feel comfortable advising you on how to handle this in case I make a mistake. I'd highly recommend you reach out to a tax professional who should be able to offer you the proper advice on dealing with UK VAT.