Apart from the US, most countries worldwide have VAT or GST type systems, and whilst there is much common ground in terms of the basic principles applying, it is vital that businesses trading cross border in goods and services are aware of the VAT treatment applying to their specific transactions.
With standard VAT rates typically averaging between 10% and 25% worldwide, undertaking transactions that do not comply from a VAT perspective can lead to irrecoverable VAT costs arising, significantly impacting on pricing within the supply chain. In addition to this, on a practical level, customers receiving non-compliant invoices from suppliers are likely to query the invoice, resulting in delays in payment being made.
We can provide a wide range of advice and support on UK, EU and global VAT rules and can help you understand the compliance obligations your business faces when trading cross border, and whether any overseas VAT incurred can be recovered.
Our specialists have a significant amount of experience in advising on cross border transactions across a wide range of industries and as members of the WTS network we can call upon the local expertise of a huge network of tax consultants around the world. We work closely with our overseas partners on a weekly basis.
With regard to UK advice, we can advise on a broad range of issues and industries and can also assist with areas of dispute with HMRC, ideally resolving the issue without the need to resort to litigation. However where this is not feasible, we can assist with ADR (alternative dispute resolution) in addition to the mainstream VAT litigation process, where we have a cost effective approach to what can otherwise be cost prohibitive in many cases.