Loading Profile...
Accounting for VAT - EC supplies and acquisitions
In a VAT return you need to be able to specify how much you bought from or supplied to other EC countries. However, I can't currently find a way of doing this. There doesn't seem to be any box I can tick on an invoice to say "This was a payment to Germany" for example.
What am I missing?
What am I missing?
6
people have this question
I have this question, too!
Tell me when someone answers.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
The best answer from the company
-
You're not missing anything, Tim.
Free Agent is: it does not currently break out EC transactions to calculate boxes 2, 8 and 9.
These boxes mean:
2 VAT due in this period on acquisitions from other EC Member States (but not paid)
8 Total value of all supplies of goods and related costs, excluding any VAT, to other EC member states.
9 Total value of acquisitions of goods and related costs excluding any VAT, from other EC member states.
Box 2 (VAT Due but not paid on EC purchases) does affect the amount of tax due. We don't calculate it because we think this only very rarely occurs for our users. We may be wrong, do let us know.
Boxes 8 and 9 don't affect the actual calculation, and as a workround you could pick out the appropriate invoices and purchases from the lists on the VAT Return Screen, assuming there are only one or two.
Since we now have a selectable country for invoices, we should be able to calculate box 8.
We were planning to introduce 'custom VAT rates' in the next few weeks. Now that I think about it more, this should really be 'Other EC VAT Rate' and we should be able to use that to calculate box 9.
You can consider these changes to be on our to-do list.
I’m hoping those workrounds work for you
The company says
this answers the question
-
Inappropriate?You're not missing anything, Tim.
Free Agent is: it does not currently break out EC transactions to calculate boxes 2, 8 and 9.
These boxes mean:
2 VAT due in this period on acquisitions from other EC Member States (but not paid)
8 Total value of all supplies of goods and related costs, excluding any VAT, to other EC member states.
9 Total value of acquisitions of goods and related costs excluding any VAT, from other EC member states.
Box 2 (VAT Due but not paid on EC purchases) does affect the amount of tax due. We don't calculate it because we think this only very rarely occurs for our users. We may be wrong, do let us know.
Boxes 8 and 9 don't affect the actual calculation, and as a workround you could pick out the appropriate invoices and purchases from the lists on the VAT Return Screen, assuming there are only one or two.
Since we now have a selectable country for invoices, we should be able to calculate box 8.
We were planning to introduce 'custom VAT rates' in the next few weeks. Now that I think about it more, this should really be 'Other EC VAT Rate' and we should be able to use that to calculate box 9.
You can consider these changes to be on our to-do list.
I’m hoping those workrounds work for you
The company says
this answers the question
-
Inappropriate?As a VAT registered business, does this mean I should or shouldn't charge VAT on my invoices for services to non-UK customers within the EU? How about customers outside the EU?
I’m somewhat baffled
-
Inappropriate?I don't what to go into this too deeply because ..... well, to tell you the truth I'm not a VAT expert and therefore couldn't explain it in simple terms!
To answer your question Simon boxes 8 and 9 relate to goods. Services are not goods so you can ignore them when completing your VAT returns.
I’m pleased to help
-
Inappropriate?Simon, I would recommend giving the HRMC VAT helpline a call. I've called them numerous times, and found them to be really helpful. They'll answer pretty much any question you've got about VAT.
Their number is 0845 010 9000
2 people say
this answers the question
-
Inappropriate?Could we have an entry in the VAT drop down "EC Amount" that does the same as amount, but indicates for the VAT report's that it's an EC VAT amount. This will save you having to include different custom VAT types into FAC, but still allow us to track EC VAT for our returns.
This is a fairly rare thing for me, but not if you regularly purchase software or say web hosting services from an EC country. It throws out my VAT return details by the EC VAT amount. If I had to do this regularly as part of say a weekly/monthly subscription, I'd get really frustrated.
For now I'm just going to keep track of it manually ..
1) Set VAT rate of expense to zero
2) Put a note in the description to indicate the amount of EC VAT
I’m frustrated
-
Inappropriate?Because of the way we handle the custom amount field, this is likely to be a simple checkbox which only appears if you are entering a custom amount.
Like you, though, we don't buy a lot of goods from the EU and we're a little wary of adding features that will hardly ever get used.
Of course we want to handle things as thoroughly as we can, but we have to weigh that up against the extra complexity...it would be interesting to hear from anyone who does need this regularly...
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
-
That would at least be better than what we have now. Or even just an option to enter the EC summary values so that the FA summary is the same as the that HMRC have. -
Inappropriate?@Ed - I can't say this happens regularly, but maybe 4 or 5 transactions a year.
I was just thinking, now you have Bills, you should be able to calculate both boxes 8 & 9, as you can assign purchases to contact outside of UK?
As a workaround, I have created bills for all my EC purchases (normally I wouldn't bother, as they are all credit card transactions). I have assigned them all to a generic contact, Mr E.C. Supplier, so I can at least see an account history for EC transactions. -
Inappropriate?So, a year later where do we stand? I'm about to fill out a VAT return and what the revenue have will be different from what I have--and I can't even make a manual adjustment.
I’m frustrated
-
Inappropriate?Another vote for EC reporting - especially for invoices so the EC sales list (ECSL) can be easily generated! -
Inappropriate?Hello all,
We're hoping to make it possible for FreeAgent to fill in boxes 8 and 9 of your VAT returns, and go a step further towards EC reporting, soon - please watch this space!
Madelyn, I know what you mean about help with the EC Sales List, we need to do one ourselves and I've been researching it in depth - is it just me or are they a royal pain?
So I imagine any help FreeAgent could provide with EC Sales Lists would be useful?
Whoever said "tax doesn't have to be taxing" must be living in cloud cuckoo land :-)
But we'll keep plugging away and hope to bring you more EU functionality soon...
Kind regards,
Emily
1 person says
this answers the question
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
-
Hi Emily, that's great news. I am really looking forward to it. I also have to EC sales lists etc. Would be great if you could support this.
Best regards
Christiane
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
