If you’re a vat registered trader in the United Kingdom or even in 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 services or goods to your country. It is actually fairly simple to conduct a vat number check on the internet before you decide to part with your hard-earned money.
VAT or value added tax is a system of taxing goods and services that’s followed in a number of countries across the globe including most eu countries. If you are a trader in the United Kingdom that may be www.vatnumbers.com importing goods or services from other eu countries where vat was already paid in the country of origin you’ll be able to apply for a vat refund. This may allow you to reclaim vat paid earlier in order to avoid double-taxation. However, it is necessary that you buy your goods originating from a vat registered trader or exporter overseas so that the chain of vat continues when the services or goods are imported into the UK.
However, there may be a chance that an unregistered vat trader might try to dupe you of your savings by charging you vat whilst providing you with a fake or expired vat number on the vat invoice. In such a case, you may not have the ability to reclaim any vat on that transaction, which inturn will raise the costs and deny you your rightful refund. It is actually thus vitally important to conduct a vat check that usually takes only a few minutes when you get on the official European Commission or EUROPA website that permits you to conduct a vat registration check and validate if the supplier has indeed provided you with a genuine vat number.
All that you should do is log on to the EUROPA website ec.europa.eu directly or visit the hmrc vat department website and check the page provided at the site. All you need to do is always to pick the eu country of the supplier, enter the vat number of your proposed supplier, choose your own country code, and enter your own vat number. You may now have to click on verify, upon which the verification software will inform you if the vat number is valid.
If possible, you should try to print the validation screen as proof of having conducted the check at a particular date and time. In the event the registration number is not valid then you can inform your supplier since there may be a lot of reasons for this kind of response, ranging from a genuine mistake in providing you with the vat number to willful wrongdoing on your supplier?s part. You sould never forget that ultimately it is your business which will suffer if you fail to conduct a vat number check.
Conducting a vat registration number check is very important if you are planning to purchase goods or services from vat registered traders in a foreign country which follow the system of vat. The actual checking process hardly takes more than a few seconds and performing a vat check will definitely save your valuable business a lot of money and pain in case the supplied vat number turns out to be incorrect.