Our Farrell & Farrell VAT advisory team advise clients on their routine UK and/or Irish cross-border VAT compliance as well as guide and steer clients on the more complicated one-off consultancy projects. We believe VAT is misunderstood to be one of the “easier” tax heads but in our experience the breadth and scale of VAT rules should not be underestimated and it always helps to bring our Farrell & Farrell VAT team on board at the earliest possible stage of planning.
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VAT Compliance:
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Our Farrell & Farrell team can help with as little or as much as you need our support. This could be a full package of VAT return preparation services or simply a VAT review before submission to the tax authorities. Our clients are in control as to the level of service they require from our VAT team.
 
Our services include:
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• VAT return preparation (monthly, quarterly, annual or bi-monthly (in ROI) VAT returns)

• Annual returns (including in ROI the Return of Trading Details (RTD))

• Partial exemption review

• VAT DIY Home Reclaim

• VAT planning

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VAT Planning:
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VAT is a transaction based tax and the VAT impact on any upcoming transaction should be considered in advance. With VAT it is very important to obtain the right advice at the right time, i.e. before a transaction takes place in order to minimise the exposure to UK, Irish or foreign VAT. VAT should be considered as soon as possible to determine:
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• VAT costs on the sale/purchase of land & property

• Capital goods scheme implications

• Reduced VAT rate on building works

• Option to tax rules

• Working in the Construction sector – reverse charge VAT rules

• Cross border VAT implications on trading sale transactions

• VAT Place of supply rules for goods and services

• VAT rules where multiple currencies are involved

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Case-study Examples:
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• Advising on the cross border VAT rules on a new B2B and B2C product offering for our client which was assisting them on whether to proceed or not into the new market.

• Our client was not able to recover VAT on costs incurred on a construction project. The building contractor was intending on charging 20% UK VAT on the whole project costs. We were able to advise under VAT rules how to reduce the overall VAT cost on the project and save VAT of £105,000 and to better assist with cash-flow in managing the project.

• Our client was purchasing a commercial property in Dublin under a long lease. Our Farrell & Farrell team assisted to advise on how best to manage the VAT cost on purchase and the mechanics of the option to tax. Our team liaised with the legal advisers in establishing the VAT history of the property.

• Our client was purchasing an opted to tax commercial property in Belfast with VAT being charged on purchase and our team were able to step in before purchase and advise that instead no VAT should have been charged on the purchase. This had a significant VAT and Stamp duty land tax saving for our client.