VAT: which number to put on an EU invoice

Is it possible to put a different EU country's VAT number on an invoice?

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Our very large German client wants us to invoice their German company and German address but put their Latvian VAT number on the invoice and not the German VAT number. They say this is because their warehouse is in Latvia and we will deliver directly to Latvia from the UK.

But is this correct? We use Sage Line 50 and in fact it does not allow us to generate an invoice with another country's VAT number. 

I can find nothing about this on any VAT website.

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By paul.benny
18th Sep 2019 09:00

Your customer is correct. It is the ship-to address that determines the VAT position.

If you were shipping to an address in the UK, you would charge UK VAT even if you were invoicing to Germany; likewise if the ship-to address was USA, you would zero-rate without the need to show any VAT number.

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By LSC London
18th Sep 2019 09:43

Thank you for your advice. I am not sure what we can do about our Sage invoices but will find a way!

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By paul.benny
18th Sep 2019 09:47

One solution I have used (I forget which system) is to have separate accounts for each customer/ship-to combination. It's cumbersome, especially for credit control.

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By LSC London
18th Sep 2019 10:40

Will find a work-around! thanks

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