Brexit and the new "XI" EU VAT prefix

Discussions
#1

I just learned about the new “XI” EU VAT prefix for Northern Ireland and I’ve been wondering — what do you do about GB customers? Do you contact all of them to find out which ones are in Northern Ireland and ask them to update their VAT numbers with you? Do you just ignore the problem (and risk trouble with your local tax office later)?

It seems that GB numbers can no longer be validated via the EU VIES system, so there is no way to verify if your B2B customer is indeed VAT-registered in the EU.

#2

Oh no, I forgot about NI’s new status :man_facepalming:

Unfortunately I don’t know anything about the B2B case (and little about the B2C case!) Shouldn’t this mean NI businesses have an EU VAT number that you can use?

#3

Well, I think they used to have EU VAT numbers with the “GB” prefix and right now supposedly received new numbers with an “XI” prefix? I honestly have no idea. Does Great Britain issue new numbers to all businesses? Are they supposed to notify me?

It’s not a gigantic problem, because I don’t have that many GB customers, but it’s not something to be glossed over either — the authorities here (Poland) have become extremely strict about VAT over the last several years.

#4

Paging @polimorfico - can you shed any light on this?

#5

So glad that 2Checkout/Avangate sort this out for me.

#6

Interesting! But first, are you sure they actually do sort this out for you? Every time I verified the claims of “taking care of VAT, invoicing and regulatory issues for you”, I was disappointed. And second — if they indeed do, that’s an expensive proposition. For my SaaS, 6.0% + 0.50EUR/transaction adds up to a lot of money…

#7

Legally 2Checkout are selling to the customer (the ‘merchant of note’) and I am selling to them. So if they mess up the customer’s VAT, I am not legally responsible. Also they are experts on all this stuff, it is a large part of what they do.

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#8

It’s absolutely worth it.