VAT Exempt - are they truthful?

[papermilldirect]

Hi,

In Actinic we had the settings so that the UK and the EU paid VAT and after realising that if we left the option to tick the VAT Exempt box and enter a random entry into the 'Enter your registered VAT number here' the customer could get away with not paying VAT. We had to lock it down and charge all customers VAT until we sorted this.

My question is:

We wish to offer the EU the option to be VAT exempt provided they enter a valid number. But it appears that they can put anything in here - we had one customer check the box and type 'Nil' then they weren't charged any VAT. Leaving us to foot the bill.

How do we ensure that they put in a valid number without resorting to taking the order and their VAT number then checking with the relevant authorities before completing their transaction for them?

Kind regards,

Paul Wilson
www.papermilldirect.com

[Mike Hughes]

I would guess you visit here http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_c...n/vieshome.htm before shipping the product.

Mike

[Darren B]

Hi

something you might want to think about is if someone does this deliberately then you have the right to decline any orders, something you might want to consider is making it clear in your T & C that you reserve the right to recover costs involved if the person/company knowingly makes a false claim.

Make it clear what you intend to not refund if they do it. However if you do decide to do this i would make sure that you have something next to the tick box.

we no longer supply anything VAT exempt - to much trouble and cost involved with the paperwork. Jersey and the likes are all told that VAT exempt means nothing unless they wish to pay the costs involved in processing it.

Cheers
Darren

Just my thoughts
Darren

[Jan]

I usually phone and check and then if they are not exempt I just ask them to pay the difference and don't ship the order until they do. Haven't anything other than sheepish sounding customers that paid up as yet.

Regards

[papermilldirect]

Hmm,

Some interesting comments. I'll take them to the accounting director.
We obviously don't want to turn customers away and if we need to check prior to shipping then we'll have to. As our business grows (and it will, as we are part of James Cropper PLC) we'll have to find an alternative as alot of EU orders coming through will be quite labour intensive.

I like the check page Olderscot - thanks

Thanks to all for the help - if you want some photo paper email me, enquiries@papermilldirect.com and I'll sort you out with a discount. I'll not post it in case I'm breaking the rules of the forum.

Kind regards,

Paul