Guidance on VAT charges and zero rating for Northern Ireland businesses with EU customers.
My customer in Ireland / EU has provided me with an EU VAT number. Do I charge them U.K. VAT?
The Windsor Framework/Northern Ireland Protocol means that Northern Ireland maintains alignment on some administrative processes within the EU VAT rules for goods, including on goods moving to, from and within Northern Ireland. However, Northern Ireland is, and will remain, part of the UK’s VAT system, and the rules will continue to be largely aligned. HMRC will continue to be responsible for the operation and collection of the revenues in Northern Ireland.
If you sell, supply or transfer goods out of the UK to someone in another country, you may need to charge VAT on them. You can zero rate most supplies exported outside the EU or sent to someone who’s registered for VAT in an EU country. If you sell goods or services to someone in an EU country, who is not VAT-registered, you apply VAT in the normal way.
If you’re sending goods to someone who is VAT-registered in a destination EU country, you can zero rate the supply for VAT purposes, if:
- the goods are sent out of Northern Ireland to an EU country
- whoever you’re sending them to is VAT-registered in an EU country
- you get their VAT registration number, including the 2-letter country code, and show it on your sales invoice
- you’ve got evidence of removal showing that the goods have gone out of Northern Ireland (U.K.)
- you dispatch the goods and get evidence of removal within 3 months.
To account for the VAT on zero-rated sales to an EU country, include the value of the goods in your VAT Return.
How to report zero-rated EU sales
All Northern Ireland VAT-registered traders have to send lists of their EU sales to HMRC. You have to tell HMRC about zero-rated EU sales on three different forms:
• your normal VAT Return in box 6 and box 8
• the EC Sales List (ESL)
• the Intrastat Supplementary Declaration, if you sell over a legally set threshold of goods to EU customers in a year.
Northern Ireland remains aligned with the rest of the UK for VAT processes related to transactions in services.
Article Revised by the Trade Hub Team: January 2024