VAT and selling goods in the EU

Hello Tom. We’ve got some problems selling our windows in the EU. I wonder if you can help with the VAT issues? The starting point is that we have received an order from an Italian business. But we have decided to buy the windows directly from a Dutch company – they will invoice us in the UK and we will apply a mark-up and invoice the Italians. But the goods will go directly from the Netherlands to Italy. The problem is that the Dutch company wants to charge us 20% Dutch VAT. Is that correct?’

‘Unfortunately it is correct Marie. Before 1 January 2021 this deal would have been simple because of an EU simplification measure known as “triangulation”. This meant that the invoice from the Dutch company to you in the UK would be zero rated for VAT purposes as would your invoice to...