Living overseas and VAT payments for online purchases

[shads]

Hi

I hope someone can help me with this.

I live abroad and am not resident in the UK for tax purposes. For my business (based in Australia) I buy products and services online form a number of countries including UK based businesses.

Most UK based business have options in their shopping carts so that I do not get taxed VAT when I make a purchase. However, one particular company insists that they have been told that they have to charge me VAT, as they are a UK based business.

Is this correct? If so, how can I claim back what I have paid?

Thanks.

[vatexpert]

There is no VAT on the supply and export of goods from the UK to Australia. However, the rules governing services are not so straightforward and, depending on the service supplied, the place of supply could be the UK so that UK VAT is chargeable.

If your business is required to pay VAT, it is possible to recover this, subject to certain conditions. See VAT Notice 723 which can be downloaded from the HMRC website.

Joe Wilkins
www.vatexpert.net

[shads]

Thanks for replying.

This is my problem though.

I live in Australia. My business is in Australia and is not required to pay VAT - I pay the Australian version which is called GST at 10%. I simply shop online and buy goods and services. I'm not sure how I would recover the VAT in these cases.