If you are a vat registered trader in the United Kingdom or perhaps any other member EU country which has embraced vat then you need to conduct a vat check of the supplier before finalizing your transaction, particularly if you intend to import goods or services into your country. It is actually quite simple to conduct a vat number check vatcontrol.com/vat on the internet before you spend your hard-earned money.
VAT or value added tax is a system of taxing goods and services that’s followed in several countries around the world including most eu countries. If you’re a trader in the UK that is importing goods or services from other eu countries where vat has already been paid in the country of origin you’ll be able to make application for a vat refund. This may allow you to reclaim vat paid earlier so as to avoid double-taxation. However, it is necessary that you purchase your goods originating from a vat registered trader or exporter overseas so that the chain of vat continues as soon as the goods or services are imported to the UK.
However, there just might be a possibility that an unregistered vat trader might attempt to dupe you of your savings by charging you vat whilst offering you a fake or expired vat number on the vat invoice. In such a case, you may not be able to reclaim any vat on that transaction, which inturn will raise the costs and deny you your rightful refund. It is actually thus very important to conduct a vat check that typically takes only a few minutes when you log on to the official European Commission or EUROPA website that permits you to conduct a vat registration check and validate if the supplier has indeed given you an authentic vat number.
All that you should do is log on to the EUROPA website ec.europa.eu directly or go to the hmrc vat department website and follow the link provided at the website. All you have to do is to choose the eu country of your supplier, type in the vat number of your proposed supplier, choose your country code, and type in your own personal vat number. You may now have to click on verify, upon which the verification software will inform you if your vat number is valid.
Whenever possible, you need to print the validation screen as evidence of having conducted the check at a particular date and time. If the registration number isn’t valid you’ll be able to inform your supplier since there could be many reasons for such a response, ranging from a genuine mistake in supplying you with the vat number to willful wrongdoing on your supplier?s part. You should remember that ultimately it’s your business which will suffer if you fail to conduct a vat number check.
Performing a vat registration number check is very important if you plan to buy goods or services from vat registered traders in another country that also follow the system of vat. The actual checking process hardly takes more than a few seconds and performing a vat check will certainly save your valuable business lots of money and pain should the supplied vat number turns out to be incorrect.
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