VAT puzzle regarding Play.com

TheBigCheese_2 · 28 April 2009 at 5:31PM

Hi folks

I am compiling our first VAT return and am wondering about items greater than £18.00 that we have purchased from play.com

We have bought four external hard drives at £100 each and a scanner at £270.00.

The scanner arrived with a delivery note saying it was not a VAT invoice and that would follow in a few days, which it never did.

I rang Play yesterday and was told outright that they don't charge VAT on anything.
There is no VAT number that I can find on their website and after reading conflicting information on the net (either that or I was getting very confused) I rang them again tonight with this information about the VAT invoice following. The lady I spoke to said she would have to send it to head office to calculate and they would contact me...she couldn't email me over any receipts or give me their VAT number over the phone and was rather cagey and abrupt about it

Does Play charge VAT for items over £18.00 and am I able to claim it back? The 'head office calculated' receipts won't be here for a few days but I need this done and sent to HMRC by the end of the month - erk!

Many thanks in advance for any help and replies, I'm rather flummoxed!

System · 28 April 2009 at 6:21PM

Technically as a Jersey registered company they do not deal with VAT and do not need to be VAT registered.
Taken from Jersey government site
"For VAT and Excise purposes the Channel Islands are excluded"

jpcentral · 28 April 2009 at 6:37PM

Jersey is not part of the EU for VAT purposes and therefore will not charge you VAT. They are treated the same as other non EU countries.

However, the bad news is that, if you import goods from Jersey, they should be subject to UK Import Duty and VAT. You could find that those lovely people at HMRC send you a bill. If the bill is for VAT, you can claim it back, so not a problem. Unfortunately, if the goods you bought are subject to import duty, you won't be able to reclaim that (other than as a business expense).

jpcentral
Central Business Services
Loughborough (01509) 816150 - find our website

Pagan98 · 28 April 2009 at 10:30PM

<snip>The 'head office calculated' receipts won't be here for a few days but I need this done and sent to HMRC by the end of the month - erk!</snip>

You can defer claiming back any VAT on this transaction until such time as you receive a VAT invoice, it doesn't have to be done on this quarter's return. The return asks you for VAT due in this period on sales and offsets VAT reclaimed in this period on purchases (i.e. not VAT paid on purchases).

gerryjn · 1 March 2010 at 10:27AM

IN my opinion Play.com are playing a very thin line on legality !

Also as their pricing is VAT exclusive !For a business many items many items are actually very much more expensive than purchasing from a mainland supplier and reclaiming the VAT. - BE WARNED.

I purchased a Nokia phone for business use assuming that I cauld reclaim the VAT. It is not obvious anywhere on the site that you are delaing with a Jersey company !
In reality I would have been £30 better off by not buying from Play.com !

inmypocketnottheirs · 1 March 2010 at 10:49AM

You have not paid VAT and therefore can not reclaim it.

silvercar · 2 March 2010 at 2:30PM

Amazon now often sends things from Amazon indigo starfish, also based in Jersey and no VAT charged.

noh · 2 March 2010 at 10:14PM

gerryjn wrote: »

IN my opinion Play.com are playing a very thin line on legality !

Also as their pricing is VAT exclusive !For a business many items many items are actually very much more expensive than purchasing from a mainland supplier and reclaiming the VAT. - BE WARNED.

I purchased a Nokia phone for business use assuming that I cauld reclaim the VAT. It is not obvious anywhere on the site that you are delaing with a Jersey company !
In reality I would have been £30 better off by not buying from Play.com !

They do state that they are a Jersey company in their T+Cs.
Condition 2 is worth noting too!

https://www.play.com/Helpdesk.aspx?page=playterms&r=HOME&pa=#jump-03

The owner of this web site is Play Limited whose address is Play.com, PO Box 192, Jersey, JE4 8RP (‘Play.com’/‘we’ /‘us’/‘our’). Registration number 86716.
Your contract for purchases made through the Site is with Play.com, and you undertake that any and all goods ordered by you are for your own private and domestic use only.

Paragraph 33 states

Every purchase you make shall be deemed performed in Jersey.
Jersey law shall govern every aspect of contractual agreement concerning purchases made from the Site.

Mr_Taxtastic · 2 March 2010 at 11:54PM

My understanding is as follows:

As play is a Channel Island company they do not charge VAT. Upon import of items from non-EU countries (including the Channel Islands) to the UK, the purchaser has to pay import VAT unless the item is under £18 in value.

Where items are over £18, Play.com will prepay the import VAT which they include in their price, so the price you see, is the price you pay in total including all taxes.

The Revenues guidance is as here

UK Customs has special arrangements that allow some overseas traders to charge, collect and pay over to us the import VAT for goods purchased on the internet that would normally be chargeable at the time the goods are imported. These arrangements operate under Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed with certain overseas customs and postal authorities. The countries who have an MoU with HMRC are: Channel Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand. Overseas traders wanting to use this procedure must be authorised to do so by their authorities.
Once authorised, foreign businesses are issued with a unique authorisation number, which they must show on the customs declaration or packaging. Also they will include the statement 'Import VAT Pre-paid'.
Where these arrangements are used you will not be charged a Royal Mail handling fee when you receive your package.
If you are a VAT registered business and purchase goods for use in your business you should keep the outer wrapper and invoice from the supplier to support your claim to input tax.

Taken from (3.4)http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P99_11007

So in essence, due to the value of the items purchased, you have paid import VAT which you can reclaim as long as you still have the packaging reference number.

Hope that helps

Regards

JasonLVC · 3 March 2010 at 11:22AM

Can I just say, Mr Taxtastic - best....username.....ever!.

Mr_Taxtastic · 4 March 2010 at 7:11PM

JasonLVC wrote: »

Can I just say, Mr Taxtastic - best....username.....ever!.

Came to me in a rare moment of inspiration. Tax is easy compared to choosing a username.

VAT puzzle regarding Play.com

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free