Hi,
I have customers in the EU. They are not VAT registered, so they have to pay VAT normally.
I believe these sales to the EU should appear in box 8 of the VAT return, right?
How do I set it in Quickfile to show these EU sales as it is 0 and all sales are in Box 6
I tried setting the customer to “VAT Registered in another EC Member State” to see if that would work, but it didn’t work.
Thank you.
I’m seeing conflicting guidance - HMRC’s vat notice 700/12 says you should include in box 8
But the only other references I can find to a “distance selling threshold” means the point at which you have to register for local VAT in the destination country, which would surely put those sales completely out of the scope of UK VAT as you’d be charging French (or wherever) VAT instead…?
This is the point at which I would drop an email to my accountant for clarification.
mmmm only problem, my accountant hasn’t got a clue about this. This is why I have been actively looking for another, someone who actually knows these simple basic things!
According to HMRC’s website, it says,
"### 3.9 Filling in box 8
Show the total value of all supplies of goods to other EU member states and directly related costs, such as freight and insurance, where these form part of the invoice or contract price. This must include the value of any goods dispatched from the UK to a destination in another member state, even if no actual sale is involved or the sale is being invoiced to a person located outside the EU. Leave out any VAT. See The single market (VAT Notice 725) for further information on trading within the EC.
You must include the value of supplies such as:
But you do not include in box 8 the value of any of the following:
Figures entered in this box must also be included in the box 6 total."
So they do have to be included there as I understand.
Hi Noah_123,
You are right, in Box no 8 should be “Total value of all supplies of goods and related costs, excluding any VAT, to other EC Member States” - the amount your eu customer paid to you without VAT.
This amount (without VAT) should also be included in box 6 where the total of all your sales (UK and EU) should show up. Box 8 is only for sales to other EU/EC Countries.
Did you set up these invoices for foreign customers described in this article Invoicing in foreign currencies and also in this article VAT Returns Guide?
If you come to this point “VAT on EC sales and acquisitions” 
I would choose no 3 “No Special Treatment”. Have you tried this? I don’t have EU costumers but this is what I would click.
Is it not working, you can also enter any adjustments manually (described in the VAT Return Guide article),but do it only with care and after speaking to your accountant.
Maybe it is a little bit helpful.
Please note, I am not an accountant and I don’t work for quickfile.
@rhc you’re mixing up different concepts here.
Box 2 has nothing to do with sales, it is only for cases where you’re buying from a vat-registered supplier elsewhere in the EU and you have told them you’re registered for vat in the UK - they don’t charge their vat to you but you have to put the appropriate UK vat in box 2 (and the net in box 9).
When selling goods to a customer elsewhere in the EU who is registered for VAT in their own country you would normally not charge them any UK vat, and you would include the net value of the sale in box 8 - this much is uncontroversial. The OP’s question is whether you have to include in box 8 the net value of sales to non-vat-registered customers in the EU where you are also charging them UK vat as you would for a UK sale.
The quoted HMRC guidance is ambiguous - on the one hand it seems to suggest you should include these in box 8: “all supplies of goods to other EU member states … Leave out any VAT.” but then it goes on to qualify this with “distance sales to unregistered customers in another member state where the value of your distance sales have exceeded the distance selling threshold of that member state” which suggests you only include such sales if they’re over a threshold.
However if you follow the link to VAT notice 725 it becomes clearer. Section 6.17 has a table that lays out what goes in which box - it says that distance sales from the UK to the EU below the threshold at which you would have to register for vat in the destination country do not go in box 8, only in box 6.
(Repeating myself as I discovered this info later and edited my previous post, which won’t have notified the OP)
According to VAT Notice 725 you should not include in box 8 distance sales on which you’re charging UK VAT - only sales on which you’re charging overseas VAT in the destination country because you are also registered for VAT in that country. If that were the case you would have to report such sales on your UK return with the net in boxes 6 and 8, but no VAT in box 1 (because you’re not charging UK VAT), and you’d additionally have to report those sales on your VAT return in the relevant country according to that country’s own rules.
If your distance sales to a particular country are below that country’s threshold for local VAT registration then they’re just treated as if they were UK sales on your UK VAT return (net in box 6, VAT in box 1, nothing in box 8).
Thank you so much for your reply. That makes life so much easier! I have been reporting EU sales with UK 20% VAT in box 8. I also noticed someone else thining the same in the xero forum and he was warning that their software is wrong and no one was able to answer him!
https://community.xero.com/business/discussion/12373227
This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.