Do I need to register for VAT?

danny1986

Hey everyone. Apologies for this n00b question.

So here is the lowdown, my expected turnover for the year is €55k.
I work as a programmer doing contracting work for an American company.

I see on the revenue site that it says if you earn more than €35k from "services" you need to register for VAT.

Am I correct in presuming that my contracting work would be classed as services, and I need to register for VAT?

Thanks in advance.

Peterdalkey

the last item on this page seems to cover it! http://www.revenue.ie/en/personal/circumstances/moving/working-self-employed-individual.html#sec12

dbran

Hi

Is the American company based in Ireland or in the US?

You are providing a service to an American Company which is outside the EU.

Therefore the place of supply is America and therefore there is no requirement to register for VAT as it is outside the scope of Irish VAT.

Best Regards


dbran

danny1986

dbran wrote: »

Hi

Is the American company based in Ireland or in the US?

You are providing a service to an American Company which is outside the EU.

Therefore the place of supply is America and therefore there is no requirement to register for VAT as it is outside the scope of Irish VAT.

Best Regards


dbran

Hello thanks for the information.
The American company is based in the US, they have no business activity in Ireland, bar me doing contract work for them.

So from what you said, I don't have to register for VAT, right?

Thanks so much to everyone for their assistance.

MyPerfectCousin

I've been in a similar situation. My accountant advised that I didn't have to register for VAT or charge VAT since the services were provided to a non-EU location. I did this for several years without any problems.

It gets more complicated if you will also do any work for Irish/EU clients. Let's say you bill 55K to the US and 5K to Ireland. There's still no requirement to charge VAT for the US client, but you are open to challenge on the other piece because you are selling to Irish clients and your total turnover is over the threshold. When I changed accountants, which coincided with me starting to look around for extra work locally, the new one was concerned about this and suggested I register just in case. On the plus side I was able to get refunds on a few purchases, but it did add a lot of admin.

danny1986

MyPerfectCousin wrote: »

I've been in a similar situation. My accountant advised that I didn't have to register for VAT or charge VAT since the services were provided to a non-EU location. I did this for several years without any problems.

It gets more complicated if you will also do any work for Irish/EU clients. Let's say you bill 55K to the US and 5K to Ireland. There's still no requirement to charge VAT for the US client, but you are open to challenge on the other piece because you are selling to Irish clients and your total turnover is over the threshold. When I changed accountants, which coincided with me starting to look around for extra work locally, the new one was concerned about this and suggested I register just in case. On the plus side I was able to get refunds on a few purchases, but it did add a lot of admin.

Thanks for this. I'm also running a Limited company, if that makes any difference. No employees bar myself just yet though.

MyPerfectCousin

danny1986 wrote: »

Thanks for this. I'm also running a Limited company, if that makes any difference. No employees bar myself just yet though.

Yeah I also had a limited company, same deal one person.

danny1986

MyPerfectCousin wrote: »

Yeah I also had a limited company, same deal one person.

Fantastic. Thanks so much for the help. (Also thanks to everyone else who contributed)