VAT Issues
Case Study 1
Q: We are making an application form to participate in the “Now! Design à vivre” furniture Trade Fair at Paris Nord exhibition centre and they are charging VAT in their invoices. Could you please let me know about the procedures and how to recover the VAT.
A: VAT applications for refund can be send on a quarterly basis or on a yearly basis: all applications for year 2009 have to be submitted before the end of June 2010. Be careful to gather together all original invoices, and check that all invoices are well raised to your company name and to your company address in the UK. Please check also that VAT amount are well indicated on the invoice.
Case Study 2
Q: We need to buy and sell Gasoil Jet Fuel in the UK by the end of the month. The commodity will not move and will stay in UK.
We are a French registered company & we have already a EU VAT number in France.
What needs to be done & can you do the procedure for us? Of course, we are ready to pay for this service.
A: You have to be registered for VAT in the UK to be able to own goods in the UK, and to sell them from the UK. Please provide your KBIS (= certificate of incorporation in France) & the proof of registration to the French VAT. SEDI UK can be named as agent to comply with your VAT obligations.
Thank you to provide a Proforma invoice in order to speed up the process of registration with the HMRC, due to the VAT to be paid to yourself and refunded to the VAT office after the sale has occurred.
Case Study 3
Q: We need information about the French VAT refunds. In fact, our application has totally been rejected because we are no longer submitted to the 8th directive because of French transactions relating to Article 283-1 of the French Tax Code. Therefore, we must register ourselves to French VAT with the Tax office for foreign companies.
Our products are delivered from our offices in the UK to the warehouse located in Laval / France & then delivered to various French clients.
If a client receives items from our own offices, should we invoice them with the British VAT, or with the French VAT ?
A: According to the rules within the EU, you have to justify the cross border of your goods between two European countries. If the products are delivered from the UK to France direct to a company registered to VAT in France, then you can invoice without any VAT relating to EU transfer of goods. If the products are delivered from the UK to private clients in France directly, you will have to invoice UK VAT up to a limit of 100 000 Euros of TO. If French individuals are delivered from your storage place in France , then the sales will be submitted to the French TVA. If clients being French companies registered to VAT in France are delivered from your French storage place, then no VAT will be invoiced as per ART 283/1, but these sales will have to be specifically declared on the French VAT form.
Case Study 4
Q: We were also told that we should do a sales list / Intrastats . What does it contain? Does it include the good value which has been sold and delivered in Laval? Does it include the good value sold to all our clients? Or only the good value delivered to private customers?
A: Every month you should complete the sales list (DEB in French) & send it to your local office of Customs. SEDI can provide this service. The DEB gives details about intra-EU movements of goods entering or leaving France. Items entering in France from your British office should be reported.
Case Study 5
Q: After our VAT registration, should we do a yearly declaration form (including the payable VAT for our transaction with clients and the receivable VAT on our own purchases in France)?
A: In France, as a non resident company ( stable establishments in France being either a branch or a subsidiary), you will have to submit a monthly VAT return and we should refer to correct reports from your internal accounting systems.
Case Study 6
Q: We need to register for TVA in France. As we have very limited French language capability we would like to appoint an agent. We have deductible VAT from our supplier in France. Supplies in France, correspond to roughly 70% of our sales. So the amount of VAT is considerably less. Our accounting software is Mamut which is hosted online. Can I set up a database on Mamut with French VAT rates?
A: You do not really need to set up an accounting system for foreign VAT. You can just use your actual book keeping software if it enables you to work multi-currency & with various different rates of VAT, as Quickbooks Pro does. We use Quickbooks Pro for our UK clients and we can manage various VAT registration through it. If too complicated, an excel spreadsheet will do.