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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Reverse Charge and no invoice

Notme
Posts:5
Joined:Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:40 pm
Reverse Charge and no invoice

Postby Notme » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:49 pm

Hi All,

I have been doing business with a company in the USA who has been providing us with a web service for a number of months. They were taking about a monthly subscription fee every month. I have asked them for invoices for all the subscriptions but they have refused to do so.

I understand that since this is a foreign business we will need to reverse charge, but do we need proof of RC ? usually we keep a log of the transaction and the invoice but what are we to do in such a circumstance ?

Regards

robbob
Posts:3228
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:01 pm

Re: Reverse Charge and no invoice

Postby robbob » Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:34 am

Personally i would go with the reverse charge route if that is the best available answer based on the information you have.

I would say it is recommendable to get your supplier to confirm their place of belonging and also confirm that no eu vat is being accounted for by them - confusion is most likely to arise if they don't know you are uk vat registred customer and incorrectly use b2c rules and account for vat without your knowledge - i would have thought that would unliekly to be an issue. With some companies though its up to you to enter correctly on their systems your vat details to get the right billing situation.

Notme
Posts:5
Joined:Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:40 pm

Re: Reverse Charge and no invoice

Postby Notme » Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:13 pm

Thanks. They are charging us in USD so I assumed they were American based. They don't have much information about their company available for the public, and maybe an invoice would give that away. Whatever the case, it is somewhat strange, we won't be doing business with them again!

I have another question, I have an Esso fuel expense loaded into Quickbooks via our bank card. Unfortunately, I lost the receipt for it, would I be able to reclaim the VAT on that ? although I don't have the receipt, the card transaction is available.

robbob
Posts:3228
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:01 pm

Re: Reverse Charge and no invoice

Postby robbob » Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:12 pm

I have another question, I have an Esso fuel expense loaded into Quickbooks via our bank card. Unfortunately, I lost the receipt for it, would I be able to reclaim the VAT on that ? although I don't have the receipt, the card transaction is available.
Well it's in your interests to have a vat invoice for sure , practicably speaking i have found hmrc to normally be reasonable where it is reasonably obvious that vat is involved and there may be the odd invoice missing. The main thing is to be honest in your dealings - i think if they can't prove anything wrong with what you have claimed they are less likely to be picky - if they see that you don't know the full ins and outs of vat and are claiming for wrong uns i could understand why they would simply have a blanket no approach of saying no where no invoice is supplied.

HMRC do have discretion in this regard so the proof of payment to Esso is alternative evidence - i would say though an establishment like that , that may sell non business personal items like cigarettes may still lead to a picky inspector saying no as a payment to esso proves didly squat if it could be cigarettes you bought rather than fuel.
Do you have alternative documentary evidence other than an invoice (for example a supplier statement)?
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-input-tax/vit31200

In summary yes claim i would claim if i was confident vat had been billed and generally invoices are kept nearly all of the time.


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