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Summer 2004 Newsletter

Europe Expands

From 1 May, 10 new countries are part of the EU. If you do business with suppliers or customers in those countries, you will need to think about the effect on your VAT accounting and reporting.

If you buy goods from outside the EU, import duty is due when the goods cross the border. Now the border has moved, goods coming from the new countries are treated as 'acquisitions', and the VAT is only due on your next VAT return.

If you sell goods which leave the EU, they are 'exports', and they are zero-rated. There are various conditions for making sure that zero-rating is available. If you sell to another EU country, they are 'despatches' and they are still zero-rated, but the conditions for zero-rating are slightly different. In particular, you need the VAT registration number of the customer, and you need to make more reports through the VAT system.

Sales of some services - such as consultancy - are VAT-free if they are made to customers who 'belong outside the EU'. The same services are only VAT-free within the EU if the customer is in business in a different member state. So if you have private customers for those services in Latvia, Hungary or Malta, you will have to start charging them VAT.

There were big parties in the accession countries on 1 May. Did no-one warn them about VAT?