VAT distance sales

One of our clients is a company selling “perfect pieces of furniture” through a web shop. Its customers are private individuals living all over Europe. For VAT purposes these sales can be regarded as “distance sales”. As a main rule the company has to register itself and pay VAT only in the EU country of residence. This can be different for instance if sales in a specific EU country exceed a certain sales level (threshold). In that situation VAT registration in that specific EU country is necessary. To make it even more complicated, the thresholds vary from country to country.

The business has been growing rapidly within the EU causing luxury problems for the client. As a result of the increase in sales, certain thresholds were exceeded. Consequently, the company had to register and pay VAT not only in the Netherlands but also in Denmark, Belgium and now France as well. The company’s local adviser couldn’t handle the international VAT compliance and asked us for assistance.

With the help of our TGS Global member firms in Denmark, Belgium and France we were able to take care of the international VAT compliance of the company. TGS lime tree is managing all communications and issues one quarterly invoice on behalf of all TGS firms involved. This has made the client very happy.