Using N.I. based mail forwarder, wanting to buy EX VAT.

cormie

I buy quite a lot of business related material online and often request UK companies to provide the goods EX VAT by providing my VAT number. Most are happy to do this and when they can ship direct to my address it's fine, but when it works out much cheaper to use the likes of Parcel Motel, they can't provide this EX VAT as it's being sent to a UK address. Does anyone know of any allowances or work around where it's still possible to be sent the items EX VAT as it's only a mail forwarding company?

I'm pretty sure it's delivery address dependent so having a separate billing and delivery address still won't make a difference, or would it?

Any feedback appreciated

AndyJB

cormie wrote: »

I buy quite a lot of business related material online and often request UK companies to provide the goods EX VAT by providing my VAT number. Most are happy to do this and when they can ship direct to my address it's fine, but when it works out much cheaper to use the likes of Parcel Motel, they can't provide this EX VAT as it's being sent to a UK address. Does anyone know of any allowances or work around where it's still possible to be sent the items EX VAT as it's only a mail forwarding company?

I'm pretty sure it's delivery address dependent so having a separate billing and delivery address still won't make a difference, or would it?

Any feedback appreciated

Hi,
Yes it is delivery address dependent. Same rules apply in reverse from here.

Just wondering how would the p/motel save you? I presume you'd use a NI one and travel from South to collect. If that is the case, surely fuel and travel time would eat into profit as much as direct delivery?

Review UK suppliers delivery charges and maybe purchase slightly larger quantities but less often. Should save on delivery rates that way. Also checkout discounts for larger orders.

Balance any quantity discounts / delivery savings with what you can actually sell.

Best of luck.

jimmii

AndyJB wrote: »

Hi,
Yes it is delivery address dependent. Same rules apply in reverse from here.

Just wondering how would the p/motel save you? I presume you'd use a NI one and travel from South to collect. If that is the case, surely fuel and travel time would eat into profit as much as direct delivery?

Review UK suppliers delivery charges and maybe purchase slightly larger quantities but less often. Should save on delivery rates that way. Also checkout discounts for larger orders.

Balance any quantity discounts / delivery savings with what you can actually sell.

Best of luck.

Parcel Motel delivers to a location near you in the republic you don't travel to NI to collect it.

jimmii

cormie wrote: »

I buy quite a lot of business related material online and often request UK companies to provide the goods EX VAT by providing my VAT number. Most are happy to do this and when they can ship direct to my address it's fine, but when it works out much cheaper to use the likes of Parcel Motel, they can't provide this EX VAT as it's being sent to a UK address. Does anyone know of any allowances or work around where it's still possible to be sent the items EX VAT as it's only a mail forwarding company?

I'm pretty sure it's delivery address dependent so having a separate billing and delivery address still won't make a difference, or would it?

Any feedback appreciated

I've never used it for business purposes you would think the billing address would be enough but I guess that is to prevent people setting up a non-trading company and getting a vat number for it. Have you tried using parcel2go? The other day we were quited £35 for a small delivery and were able to get it for £9 with UPS via P2G. We often arrange our own delivery it normally comes to at least 20% less than we get quoted.

pedronomix

UK vendor is obligated to prove export of goods or be liable for the uncharged VAT. You can use ROS to reclaim UK/EU VAT paid. http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/refunds/unregistered-persons-vat-reclaims-faqs.html

cormie

Thanks for the input. AndyJB, parcel motel is a brilliant service and as jimmii mentions, they take the parcels to their "motel" locations, one is less than 1km from me so it's really handy. Some UK companies won't even deliver to Ireland but will deliver to a UK address for free, so you're then just paying the €3.95 motel fee. With those who do deliver to Ireland direct, you have to weigh up the cost of direct postage vs the more easily claimable VAT rather than having to go through the EU VAT reclaim process.

The thing is, it should be easy enough for the vendor to prove export of goods if they have an Irish billing address and the delivery address is proven to be a mail forwarding company only, but understandably they probably don't want to take that risk and then the bigger companies would probably just flat out refuse anyway.

Never tried Parcel2go jimmii, how does it differ to parcel motel?

pedronomix

EU Vat fraud is huge, why would any UK supplier go to the bother of proving that the goods were ultimately exported when they did not export them directly. The EU VAT reclaim process is simple, the rest is just faffing about. There are plenty of UK suppliers who wont even do the proper VAT export free invoicing.

jimmii

cormie wrote: »

Never tried Parcel2go jimmii, how does it differ to parcel motel?

Parcel2go is basically just a courier comparison site/booking agent. Because they get a good bit of volume going through them they get pretty good rates from the Couriers. I found it when I moved back to Ireland from London I had 10 10kg boxes go from London to Wicklow for £100 with UPS.

cormie

Just had a look there, handy to know about, thanks, but not sure how happy a supplier would be to have the customer arrange collection from another courier, definitely something to keep in mind anyway

pedronomix, don't some countries require a minimum amount in order to go through with the claim? At the same time, it's not really worth paying an accountant to do it for one country if you're only getting a few quid back. My fuel card company offer to do it too for I think 10% of the reclaimed amount which might be a better option!

jimmii

cormie wrote: »

Just had a look there, handy to know about, thanks, but not sure how happy a supplier would be to have the customer arrange collection from another courier, definitely something to keep in mind anyway

No one has minded when we have done it most seem happy for us to take that off their hands! Its not something we have to do very often a lot of the suppliers have started offering free delivery to Ireland again recently. We even have one US supplier who offers it :eek:!

cormie

Wow, I want to get about 100kg of stuff shipped from the US but the cost is too prohibitive and is more expensive than the items themselves. Actually, on that, I've never really ordered from outside the EU, but is the vat and duty reclaimable on regular post that gets stung for import duties, and do you just claim it as you would any vat?

jimmii

cormie wrote: »

Wow, I want to get about 100kg of stuff shipped from the US but the cost is too prohibitive and is more expensive than the items themselves. Actually, on that, I've never really ordered from outside the EU, but is the vat and duty reclaimable on regular post that gets stung for import duties, and do you just claim it as you would any vat?

Yeh its just the same VAT as normal. If you are ordering from outside the EU then just in case it was something you were looking at I would definitely suggest avoiding having things sent USPS as it is a massive pain getting the duty etc sorted when it arrives. The couriers take care of that for you and then just invoice you for it some do it before delivery others, like FedEx, deliver straight away and then invoice you for the VAT/Duty & Admin fee afterwards.

pedronomix

I have asked parcel motel if they can provide proof of export for a shipment, this is what an EU vendor needs to keep their side clean on VAT free sales. I will post if I get an answer!

jimmii

pedronomix wrote: »

I have asked parcel motel if they can provide proof of export for a shipment, this is what an EU vendor needs to keep their side clean on VAT free sales. I will post if I get an answer!

That would be amazingly handy!

pedronomix

jimmii wrote: »

That would be amazingly handy!

The more I think about it, the simpler it becomes. UK Revenue accept Royal Mail postage receipts, courier docets etc, so if have PM docket with Uk supplier and your Irish delivery location stated on it, you can give a copy to your supplier as proof of export!! Anyone got a PM docket to show?

Just got this back from them

Hi Pedro,
We provide an emailed copy of the label which contains a tracking number for all sent items as form of confirmation, and yoou can also print your payment transaction (for VAT purposes) via your parcel motel account.
We can also on special request only and if needed, provide sending confirmation and a breakdown of the charges for it.
I hope this helps.
Kindest Regards,
Nathan

cormie

But PM needs to receive the package first, and the UK co will need payment before shipment, so unless they trust you're going to pass on the docket, they might not agree to sending it in the first place?

pedronomix

exporters only ever get proof of export after the event.

cormie

Interesting thanks again, must give it a try next time and see what happens