One of the more complex issues that faces any ecommerce SMEs is the thorny field of VAT. No doubt one of the reasons that VAT keeps people awake at night is because the VAT man has a punitive selection of sanctions at his disposal.
One of the complicating factors regarding VAT comes in the shape of cross-border trade. What are the rules?
This quick primer about VAT and cross border trade from Accordance is useful, it provides a straighforward look at the international implications of VAT. Of course, we always recommend you get proper advice from a fully qualified accountant but this is a good place to get started.
4 Responses
This Accordance guide is useless. If you look at the data for each country, it does not tell you what the individual percentage rates apply to, ie goods or services.
For instance have a look at the data for Italy, it gives you three different rates 4% 10% and 21% and worst of all it’s in FRENCH!
Hi PayPaluser,
The 3 different rates in the Country VAT Data pages refer to the Super Reduced Rate, the Reduced Rate and the Standard Rate (%) that exists in each Member State. This information may be presented more clearly for you here https://www.accordancevat.com/vat-resources/e-vat-rates/
Also, because each Member State has different rules regarding VAT which are liable to change, all of our guides are simply for guidance purposes and specific queries should always be directed to a VAT advisor.
Thanks,
Accordance
Okay thanks for that – why is it in French?
We work across Europe and so have multilingual sites – it is possible you navigated to our French site by mistake.
Another thing that E-Commerce businesses have to be aware of is not only the VAT rates in each country, but also the Distance Selling Thresholds. Once you have crossed one of these country-specific thresholds, your business must register for VAT in that country and charge local VAT. The thresholds can be found here – https://www.accordancevat.com/vat-resources/e-commerce-distance-selling-registration-thresholds/