How to reclaim VAT charged by an Irish phone company

How to reclaim VAT charged by an Irish phone...

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My client has signed up for an eReceptionist service, kind of virtual office, to manage their call system.  The company providing this service is based in Ireland and they have charged 21% VAT on their service.  I am not sure whether this is correct, and if it is, how to reclaim the VAT back painlessly from the UK HMVAT.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Eddie

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By Hansa
03rd Apr 2012 16:32

Irish VAT

We have a number of clients which use Irish based VO services.  In every case where our client is VAT registered, the Irish provider is provided with a copy of the VAT registation certificate and invited to check it on http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/

So far, this has been enough allow the charges to be raised under the reverse charge mechanism (ie zero VAT on the invoice, declare it on the VAT return).

Ancilliary services of this nature are a bit of a grey area in terms of where provision of service takes place, but the VAT offices around Europe generally accept reverse charge billing on most services - only the UK is singularly pedantic on this issue.  Try it and see!

The alternative is a direct application to the relevent VAT office under the new rules or use one of the specialist firms in this area eg www.tmf-vat.com who I've never used. It may however be uneconomic to go this route if the bills are small.

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