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, especially if you intend to import services or goods to your country. It is really fairly simple to conduct a vat number check over the internet before you decide to spend your hard-earned money.
VAT or value added tax is really a system of taxing products or services that is followed in several countries across the globe including most eu countries. If you’re a trader in the United Kingdom that may be importing goods or services from other eu countries where vat has already been paid in the country of origin then you can make application for a vat refund. This may allow you to reclaim vat paid earlier in order to avoid double-taxation. However, it is important that you purchase your goods from a vat registered trader or exporter in another country so the chain of vat continues when the goods or services are imported to the UK.
However, there may be a chance that an unregistered vat trader might attempt to dupe you of your savings by charging you vat even while providing you with a fake or expired vat number on the vat invoice. In such a case, you might not have the ability to reclaim any vat on that transaction, which in turn will raise the check vat number costs and deny you your rightful refund. It is thus very important to conduct a vat check that typically takes a short time when you log on to the official European Commission or EUROPA website that allows you to conduct a vat registration check and validate if your 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 go to the hmrc vat department website and check the page provided at the site. All you need to do is to pick the eu country of your supplier, enter the vat number of your proposed supplier, choose your own country code, and type in your own personal vat number. You will now have to click on verify, upon which the verification software will inform you if the vat number is valid.
Whenever possible, you need to print the validation screen as evidence of having conducted the check at the particular date and time. If the registration number is not valid then you can tell your supplier since there could be many reasons for such a response, ranging from an authentic mistake in supplying 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.
Performing a vat registration number check is extremely 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 conducting a vat check will certainly save your valuable business a lot of money and pain should the supplied vat number ends up being incorrect.