Readers’ forum: Where is company established for VAT?

One of my clients is a UK incorporated company with a single director and shareholder and it provides marketing services to UK and Portuguese businesses. The company has never registered for VAT because the UK annual fees are less than £85 000 the place of supply being Portugal for the overseas work.

The company has incurred a lot of VAT on buying recording equipment which will be stored at the premises of the main UK customer so registering for VAT voluntarily now seems wise in order to claim input tax.

However the twist to the tale is that the sole director/shareholder who does all the work is resident in Portugal and only comes to the UK for about eight weeks a year staying in an Airbnb apartment near to his main customer’s premises in Oxford. Does this create a UK VAT registration problem? If it...