One of my clients, a fashion sales company based in UK organises events in Paris. Their clients are from all over the world and UK.
Do they have to charge VAT when invoicing UK clients, considering the fact that the service is provided in Paris?
Thanks,
Replies (5)
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Place of Supply rules
It depends!
The PoS rules provide that exhibition services, where the supply if more than just land, is a General Rule service. Where the supply is B2B, and the customer is outside the UK, then the UK based provider does not charge VAT, but includes his customer's VAT number on his invoice. For a UK customer, UK VAT applies in the normal way.
If the supply is merely of land, then the place of supply is France, which means the UK supplier would probably have to register for VAT there.
Admission to the event is supplied where the event takes place. This means that, if delegates pay to attend, French VAT will apply.
Exhibition
The issue is then whether the exhibitors are buying space only, or more services. I suspect the latter. In that case, the General Rule applies. The recipients account for VAT under the Reverse Charge rule.
If there are more services, e.g: online marketing, apart from the exhibition, then the question changes - is there a single supply, or perhaps more than one?
Now, you have got me confused
The issue is then whether the exhibitors are buying space only, or more services. I suspect the latter. In that case, the General Rule applies. The recipients account for VAT under the Reverse Charge rule.
Are you saying that the UK customer accounts for UK VAT under the reverse charge rules on services supplied by a UK supplier, rather than the UK supplier charging UK VAT to the UK customer in the first place?