VAT requirement for online EFL school

[quime]

Hi.

We run an online EFL school. We teach English to students via Skype.

Currently we are just under the VAT threshold, but we have found more and more Spanish and French companies require us to have a VAT number to pay our invoices.

We are a UK, LTD company, our company is located in UK, but it has thrown up a few questions I can not find solid answers to.

The gov.uk website says


Tuition in English as a foreign language (EFL) (see section 9) is supplied by a commercial provider. The VAT consequences are:

the EFL provided is exempt; and
any other education provided is standard-rated


https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... l-training


Does this mean that if we did voluntarily register for VAT - then we can still not charge VAT for EFL lessons to private customers in UK and rest of world? Does it also mean we mark EFL lessons for companies as zero rate VAT, and companies buying lessons in EU would reverse charge procedure on a zero rate?


Also if we are VAT and we pay for services from the EU, would we have to use the reverse charge procedure on their invoice? (We pay private tutors in EU for their services and they are not VAT reg)

(Does an online language school qualify as ' English as a foreign language (EFL) (see section 9) is supplied by a commercial provider'?)


Our main problem is in seeing if we qualify as there is not much information pertaining to online language schools.

Many thanks for everybodies help.

Benjamin

[les35]

TEFL is VAT exempt whether or not delivered online. The key is the content of the course.

If private tutors are EU based; their supply to you would presumably be exempt, as that is the liability of their services made in the UK. So, the Reverse Charge is zero. But it would not entitle you to register for VAT.

Whether EU business customers would use the Reverse Charge depends on the rules where they are based.

(You probably need to sit down with a specialist to work through your options.)