VAT on goods to EU from Australia

UK company selling goods from Australian warehouse to EU

Didn't find your answer?

We have some goods at a distributor's warehouse in Australia.  They remain ours, ie it is consignment stock.  We have had some third-party work done in Australia on those goods, and now we're selling them to a customer in France.  Only, they're not going to France, they're going to our customer's distributor in Germany.

French customer is VAT registered, German distributor is VAT registered (I don't have their VAT number, but do I need it?).  Goods are standard rated when sold in the UK.  If we were selling the goods from the UK I would quote the customer's VAT number and the distributor's VAT number, charge VAT at 0% and state that this is an intra-European Community Supply.  (I don't know which country's VAT I am charging at 0% though.)

I obviously need to raise an invoice to our French customer, but what VAT do I need to account for, and what do I need to show on the invoice? 

Thanks, Martin

Replies (1)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By paul.benny
26th Nov 2020 12:19

It's movement of goods that drives the VAT obligation. So:

- The German distributor must account for VAT (and duty, if applicable) on import of goods from outside the EU.
- You invoice your customer with no VAT because the transaction is outside scope.

If your customer has a German VAT registration, they may be able to be the importer of record and so account for import VAT themselves and then make German standard-rated sale to the distributor.

I'd suggest that you also agree the treatment with your customer in advance.

Thanks (0)