Students from over seas

[National Flood School]

We are a training school in the UK and occasionally get people from overseas attending our courses, are we supposed to charge these people VAT on the payment for the courses they attend?

[Marie Stein]

I suspect that your services will be liable to UK VAT because they are carried out in the UK.

Unfortunately there is no general relief from VAT simply because the customer/client belongs overseas. The VAT liability of services to overseas individuals or overseas businesses is complicated and falls within a set of rules which are called “the place of supply”. Basically, the place of supply rule enables certain services provided in the UK to be supplied without VAT if the recipient of the supply is an overseas business or private individual who belongs outside the EEC.

However this doesn’t normally apply to the provision of education and training services and other types of services which are physically “performed” in the UK. Education and training services which are held in the UK are normally liable to VAT. This applies even if the attendees are overseas attendees.

The “place of supply” rule is explained in VAT notice 741 a: Place of Supply of Services which is here http://tinyurl.com/ye67t2s on the HM asked in website. Services which don’t fall within the “Place of Supply” rule are explained in some detail and those which relate to the performance of training and education services are listed at section 8 of the notice. See the final bullet point of section 8.1.2.

Certain types of education and vocational training in the UK are exempt from VAT and you may wish to look at the VAT leaflet 701/30: Educational and Vocational Training http://tinyurl.com/64s43sw to see if this would apply to your situation. However, exemption rarely applies to the provision of professional or commercial training which is provided to or by commercial suppliers or recipients.

I hope this helps you to clarify the position. If you require more tailored guidance on your own specific business activities, I would, of course, be happy to help through my consultancy services.

Marie
 

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