VAT on UK Hotels booked via internet.

I don't understand your question

booking an overseas hotel at a UK travel agent does not attract UK VAT, consequently your ramble makes no sense

tim

Glasgow.

Derek

Oh I see,

I still don't understand the question

tim

I'll have another go.

Two issues really.

You can often book a hotel cheaper via an online agency or even a high street travel agency which may or may not be VAT registered but you pay the agency in advance.

If it's a UK agency often you just get an accomodation voucher and no VAT receipt and it's not clear whether you have paid VAT which you could recover or not. The hotel won't issue you with a VAT invoice because they haven't billed you and you haven't paid them.

In this particular instance by googling for discount hotel glasgow I was offered a room at the old Central Hotel at a low rate in pounds sterling. It was only after I was commited to the transaction that I found out (UK phone number and all that) it was via an agency in Turkey, hence the VAT issues.

It seems odd that by booking through an agency in Turkey I do not have to pay VAT on a service that is "delivered" (HMRC parlance) in the UK. It seems to put booking a UK hotel direct at a disadvantage. OTOH travelling for business I recover the VAT on hotel nights, and at 3 -

4 nights per week this is a significant cost and if there is a VAT element and I can't recover it then it might make getting a cheap room less attractive after all.

If anybody can add clarification I'd appreciate it.

Derek

When the hotel charges the agency for the room, I would have thought the hotel would have to add VAT to the price it charges the agency as with most inter-business transactions, so indirectly you are paying VAT. You're just saving VAT on the agency's commission.

But if the agency is in Turkey I guess VAT is not charged, that is the point.

If it's in the UK VAT *should* be charged but as a rule we don't get the supporting documentation to recover it.

Derek

But the *hotel* is in the UK, therefore it would *have* to charge VAT to the agency whereever they are, surely?

You pay the agency, who presumably don't charge VAT to you as they're not in the UK, but they will pay VAT when buying a UK product/service, which presumably they can't reclaim as they're not VAT registered.

So this is obviously not the way to pay if you want to reclaim the VAT.

That's surely all backwards.

When a VAT registered business sells goods to a non-EC country then it

*doesn't* have to charge VAT.

However when you or I (non VAT registered) buy something from a non-EC country then we should be paying VAT. Whether the VAT gets charged or not is down to who/what catches or sees the transaction. For example buying hardware from the USA nowadays does generally get noticed and VAT is charged.

Buying goods/services from a non-EC country there's no VAT to reclaim so you can't.

The hotel case in point is interesting, I'm sure HM IR and Customs have it covered but I'm not sure how it would work. My gues is that as it's just an agency outside the EC and no actual goods or services go out of teh EC and back then the VAT should simply get passed on but whether it actually does or not is another matter.

But this isn't "goods", it's a service which will be consumed in the UK.

If what you say is true then hotels in the UK wouldn't need to charge VAT to foreigners booking a hotel room before they depart from their country.

The hotel will charge VAT to the agency.

The agency may or may not be registered for VAT in the UK much the same way as UK businesses can register for VAT or whatever in other countries.

Ask the agency for a VAT invoice. You will find out then.

Phone the VAT helpline. You may be lucky and get somebody who knows about VAT.