Business Customers (B2B)
Sales of goods to VAT registered customers in the EU can be zero rated so long as the following conditions are met:
- The customer’s EU VAT registration number, including the 2 letter country prefix code, must be shown on our invoice
- The goods must be transported out of the UK to the EU customer
- We must obtain and keep commercial evidence of the above transport
- The goods cannot be delivered to a UK address or collected by the customer
If the customer’s EU VAT registration number is not valid (even if given us by the customer), then the supply is vatable at the standard rate and the Budget Centre will be re-charged the VAT paid to HMRC.
EU VAT registration numbers can be checked on the following link:
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?selectedLanguage=en
The income should be posted to the University system using VAT code ‘SZRGEU’.
Non Business Customers (B2C)
Sales of goods to non-business customers, or business customers where we do not have a valid VAT number, are treated the same way as sales to UK customers and standard rated according to the normal rules. Remember that sales of hard books and publications are zero rated under the normal VAT rules.