setting up VAT

[Wullie]

I've set up a shop for a client and am struggling to get my head around the VAT setup. Basically I want to turn on VAT and if anyone in the UK purchases they pay the 17.5% as expected. However, if someone in Europe purchases then they are charged their rate of VAT, and if someone in America purchases they dont pay any VAT. Does this make sence? If anyone could advise me on what I should be looking to do I would be very grateful.

Kind Regards

Wullie

[I-CC]

If your customer (the site operator) is UK based and VAT applicable, then any orders taken from EU customers has the UK VAT element assigned to it, and not sure about assigning the actual country of ordering as the VAT amount, i.e. in this scenario if someone order from ROI you would charge 21% instead of our 17.5, but then how would you justify this to HMCE, just seems strange to charge VAT in the actual country of ordering as opposed to our own, which is where the order is being placed..