A UK VAT number lets an overseas company sell to British customers in its own name, charge the 20% standard rate and reclaim the UK VAT it pays on imports, stock and services. Marketplaces and corporate buyers check that number before they trade with you, and HMRC charges nothing for it.
The catch is the threshold. UK VAT registration for overseas companies has no threshold at all, so the liability can start with your first taxable sale, while a British business gets £90,000 of turnover first. HMRC also asks an overseas applicant for more proof, and it dates the registration from when the liability began rather than from the day you applied.
This is where we come in. We form the UK company or take over the one you have, prepare the registration, fix the effective date, set up the agent authorisation and keep the returns and payments on time. One team, one written price, and no email chains between you, an accountant and HMRC.
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UK Company Incorporation
Binderr
Corporate tax
19% (small profits) / 25% (main rate)
Time to Incorporate
1 Week
Cost
€350 (no pre-payment)
No UK company yet? Start with our guide on how to set up a limited company in the UK, then come back to the VAT side.
Benefits of UK VAT Registration for Overseas Companies
UK VAT registration for overseas companies buys three things: the right to sell to British customers in your own name, the ability to reclaim the UK VAT your business pays, and a number that counterparties can verify in seconds. It costs nothing to obtain and it does not make your company UK tax resident.
Sell to British Customers in Your Own Name
Without a number you depend on somebody else carrying the VAT, usually a marketplace or a distributor who takes a margin for it. With one, you invoice the customer directly, show the VAT and keep the relationship. That is why most of our clients start UK VAT registration for overseas companies before they have to, and why the benefits of setting up a company in the UK are easier to realise.
Reclaim the UK VAT Your Business Pays
Input VAT on UK costs is only recoverable through a return, and a return only exists once you are registered. HMRC's marketplace guidance makes the point for importers: a registered overseas seller can reclaim the import VAT it accounted for when the goods first entered the UK, under the normal input tax rules. Unregistered, that money is simply a cost.
UK VAT Registration for Overseas Companies
UK VAT registration for overseas companies is straightforward once the liability date, the evidence and the filings are handled together. This is what we do for you.
- No threshold to guess: We work out the date your liability started, before HMRC does.
- Company or registration only: We form the UK company, or register the one you already have.
- Evidence pack prepared: Contracts, invoices and identity documents gathered the way HMRC asks.
- Effective date handled: The registration date set correctly, with any back VAT calculated.
- Agent authorisation done: We are appointed to deal with HMRC once the number arrives.
- From €350 to incorporate: A UK limited company formed with no pre-payment.
- One team, no email chains: One point of contact from the first call to the first return.
A Number Buyers and Marketplaces Can Verify
HMRC runs a free service that confirms whether a UK VAT number is valid and shows the name and address it is registered to. Procurement teams use it, and marketplaces require a valid number from sellers holding stock in the country, as our guide on how to register an e-commerce company in the UK explains.
You Do Not Need a UK Company
A foreign entity can register in its own name, so VAT registration for foreign companies in the UK does not depend on incorporating here. Many clients still form a British company, because a counterparty, a landlord or a payment provider is easier with one. If you are weighing that up, read UK company formation for non-residents and is a UK company tax resident.
VAT Registration for Non Resident Companies in the UK
The threshold is nil. VAT registration for non resident companies in the UK is triggered by the supply itself, not by its value, so a single taxable sale can create the obligation. That one fact separates this subject from every guide written for British businesses.
What a Non Established Taxable Person Is
HMRC's VAT Notice 700/1 defines it in one line: a non-established taxable person, or NETP, is any person who does not have a UK establishment. It is a test of establishment, not of nationality or of where the company was incorporated, so a British company run entirely from abroad can be inside it.
The Nil Threshold and Where It Came From
HMRC's VAT Registration Manual at VATREG37050 states that NETPs must notify HMRC of their liability to be registered regardless of the value of the taxable supply, and notes that prior to December 2012 NETPs benefited from the UK domestic threshold. The rule sits in Schedule 1A to the Value Added Tax Act 1994, and GOV.UK repeats it plainly: you must register, regardless of taxable turnover, if you are based outside the UK and you supply any goods or services to the UK. VAT registration for non resident companies in the UK therefore starts at the first sale.
What VAT Registration a UK Company Needs
A business with a UK establishment keeps the ordinary threshold. The VAT registration a UK company needs starts once taxable turnover in the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or once it expects to pass that figure in the next 30 days alone. The supplement to VAT Notice 700/1 confirms £90,000 from 1 April 2024, up from £85,000, with deregistration at £88,000. There is no separate UK VAT registration sole trader, limited company threshold: 2026 keeps one figure for both.
Who is selling | UK establishment | Registration threshold | When you must register |
|---|---|---|---|
UK limited company | Yes | £90,000 of taxable turnover | Within 30 days of the end of the month you went over |
UK sole trader | Yes | £90,000 of taxable turnover | Same test, on the same figure |
Overseas company with stock in the UK | No | Nil | From the first taxable sale of those goods |
Overseas company selling digital services to UK consumers | No | Nil | From the first sale to a UK consumer |
Overseas company selling only to UK VAT registered businesses | No | Nil in law, but the reverse charge usually removes the supply | Check each contract before assuming you are outside |
Read the last two rows together. Most arguments about whether registration is really required turn on who the customer is and where the goods sit, not on how much money is involved. The VAT registration a UK company needs and the one an overseas seller needs are the same number on the same form, and only the trigger is different.
UK VAT Registration a Non UK Company Must Complete
Timing is where the money is lost. HMRC's registration manual says a NETP must notify within 30 days of making its first taxable supply in the UK, or of forming the intention to make taxable supplies within the next 30 days. The UK VAT registration a non UK company must complete is therefore dated from the liability, not from the application, and GOV.UK is blunt about the consequence: you must pay HMRC any VAT you owe from the date they register you. Sell for six months first and that VAT still belongs to HMRC, whether or not you charged it. Plan the UK VAT registration a non UK company must complete around that date rather than around a turnover figure. Our guide on how to set up a company as a non-resident covers the wider planning.
What Triggers VAT Registration in the UK for Overseas Companies
Four situations cover almost every case: goods already in the UK when they are sold, imported consignments worth £135 or less, sales through an online marketplace, and digital services sold to UK consumers. VAT registration in the UK for overseas companies follows the supply, so the trigger is a fact about your logistics.
Goods Stored in the UK at the Point of Sale
This is the most common trigger and the least negotiable. HMRC's guidance on overseas goods sold directly to customers states that where the goods are located in the UK at the point of sale, you must register and account for VAT on those sales, regardless of value. Fulfilment stock, a third party warehouse and consignment inventory count, so the registration belongs in the same plan as the UK registered office address and the bank account.
Imported Consignments Worth £135 or Less
For consignments worth £135 or less that are outside the UK at the point of sale, the seller charges and accounts for the VAT at the point of sale rather than at the border. Above £135, normal VAT and customs rules apply on importation. The figure is the value of the consignment, not of a single item, so splitting an order across boxes changes nothing.
Sales Through an Online Marketplace
Marketplaces changed the picture and many sellers still get it wrong. Where goods outside the UK worth £135 or less are sold through an online marketplace to a customer in Great Britain, HMRC makes the marketplace liable for the VAT. Where the goods are already in the UK and the seller is not established here, the marketplace is again liable, except on sales to a customer who gives a VAT number.
That does not release the seller. For goods already in the UK, HMRC says the seller must register if it is not already registered, records a zero rated deemed supply to the marketplace and uses the registration to reclaim import VAT. Only a seller making nothing but zero rated deemed supplies of goods held outside the UK can register voluntarily or apply for exemption.
Digital Services Sold to UK Consumers
The place of supply of cross border digital services is the consumer's location, which HMRC defines as where the consumer usually lives. Its guidance is direct: if your supplies are liable to UK VAT you will need to register for UK VAT if you are based outside the UK, and no threshold is offered. E-books, software, games, hosting and automated downloads are inside the definition; a PDF emailed by hand is not. You also keep two pieces of evidence of where each consumer belongs, such as the billing address or the IP address.
When You Do Not Have to Register
Selling only to UK VAT registered businesses is the common exit, so UK VAT registration for overseas companies is not automatic in every channel. Where the customer gives a UK VAT number on a consignment of £135 or less, you do not charge VAT and the invoice is marked to show that the customer accounts for it under the reverse charge. Supplies that are all zero rated can support an application for exception. Both positions are evidenced customer by customer, never assumed across a sales channel.
UK Company Incorporation
Binderr
Corporate tax
19% (small profits) / 25% (main rate)
Time to Incorporate
1 Week
Cost
€350 (no pre-payment)
How to Complete a UK Company VAT Registration
A UK company VAT registration runs in five moves: decide which entity registers, fix the date the liability started, file online or on form VAT1, answer HMRC's questions, then wait for the number. Most of the work sits in the first two, most of the delay in the fourth.
Decide Which Entity Registers
The overseas company can register in its own name, or a UK subsidiary or branch can register instead. A branch keeps the parent on the hook and puts its details on the UK public record, which is why we weigh registering a UK branch as a foreign company against forming one before anything is filed. Getting this wrong is expensive to unwind, because a UK company VAT registration follows the legal person rather than the trade.
Fix the Date the Liability Started
Work backwards through the first UK sale, the first stock movement and the first marketplace listing, then set the date. HMRC gives a UK business the first day of the second month after it crossed the threshold, or the date it realised it would cross it on the forward look. With no UK establishment there is no threshold, so the date is the first taxable supply or the moment you formed the intention to make one.
Apply Online or on Form VAT1
Most businesses register online through a VAT online account. GOV.UK reserves the paper form VAT1 for defined cases, including an LLP registering as part of a VAT group, divisions under separate VAT numbers, overseas partnerships, local authorities and applications for a registration exception, and it warns that postal applications usually take longer to process. The application asks for an estimate of taxable turnover for the 12 months from registration, so that figure needs to be defensible.
Answer the Follow Up Questions
HMRC checks a UK company VAT registration filed from overseas harder than a domestic one, and a slow reply is what stretches the timeline. Expect questions about what you sell, who buys it, where the goods sit and how the business is funded. We answer them as your agent, with the contracts and invoices already in the file, so the application does not go back to the queue.
Wait for the Number and the Certificate
VAT Notice 700/1 tells applicants to contact the VAT Registration Service if they have not heard back after 40 working days, which is the honest planning figure. You can trade while you wait, but you cannot show VAT on an invoice until the number exists, so prices are quoted VAT inclusive and reissued afterwards. Our note on how long it takes to register a UK company covers the formation timeline.
Get Your UK Company VAT Registration Filed
A UK company VAT registration is a short form sitting on a long evidence trail. We build both, then deal with HMRC until the number lands.
- Right entity registered: Company, branch or group, decided before anything is filed.
- Turnover estimate defended: The 12 month figure HMRC asks for, backed by your contracts.
- VAT1 only where required: The paper route used only in the cases GOV.UK reserves for it.
- Questions answered fast: We reply to HMRC as your agent so the file does not stall.
- Bank details ready: The UK account HMRC needs for repayments, opened alongside.
- Deadlines on our calendar: Your first return date tracked from the day you are registered.
Documents Needed for UK VAT Registration
HMRC asks a non-resident applicant to prove three things: that the business is real, that the people behind it are who they say they are, and that the UK supplies described are happening. The evidence behind UK VAT registration for overseas companies is what decides how fast the number arrives.
This is the pack we prepare before an application reaches HMRC.
- Certificate of incorporation: The registry document for the overseas company, with a certified translation where it is not in English.
- Constitutional documents: Articles, bylaws or the local equivalent, showing who binds the company.
- Proof of trading: Signed contracts, purchase orders or invoices naming real UK customers or suppliers.
- Evidence of the UK supply: Warehouse or fulfilment agreements, shipping documents or marketplace records.
- Identity documents: Passport or national identity card for each director and beneficial owner.
- Proof of address: A recent utility bill or bank statement for the same people.
- Bank account details: The account HMRC pays repayments into, in the name of the registering entity.
- Turnover estimate: Expected taxable turnover for the 12 months from registration, with the working.
Two items cause most delays. Ownership is the first, because HMRC wants to see through corporate shareholders to the people behind them, and our ultimate beneficial owner guide explains that tracing. Bank details are the second: a repayment account in the wrong name stops a refund. If the account is outstanding, look at setting up a UK company with a bank account.
VAT Registration for Foreign Companies in the UK
The mechanics are identical wherever the company sits. What changes is the habit the founder brings. VAT registration for foreign companies in the UK catches people out because the rule they know at home, a turnover threshold, a sales tax nexus or a treaty, does not apply here.
One point applies to all of them. A double tax treaty covers taxes on income and capital. It says nothing about VAT, so being outside UK corporation tax does not put you outside UK VAT. That holds for UK VAT registration for Canadian companies, UK VAT registration for Australian companies and UK VAT registration for Singapore companies alike, and the misunderstanding produces more late registrations than any other.
UK VAT Registration for US Companies
American sellers arrive with sales tax nexus in mind and look for a volume threshold before registering. There is none. UK VAT registration for US companies is triggered by the first taxable supply, and the usual trigger is inventory in a UK fulfilment centre, which HMRC treats as goods located in the UK at the point of sale. A US company with no permanent establishment still registers. Where a US group wants a British entity too, UK VAT registration for US companies runs alongside UK company registration.
UK VAT Registration for Canadian Companies
Canadian founders know GST and HST, and the small supplier threshold that comes with them. Nothing transfers. UK VAT registration for Canadian companies has no equivalent allowance, so a first shipment into a UK warehouse or a first digital sale creates the liability. What does transfer is record keeping built for a value added tax, which makes the return familiar once UK VAT registration for Canadian companies is in place.
UK VAT Registration for Australian Companies
Australia runs a GST with a registration turnover threshold, and Australian exporters reasonably expect the UK to work the same way. It does not. UK VAT registration for Australian companies starts at the first taxable supply, and the usual route in is low value e-commerce, where consignments of £135 or less are taxed at the point of sale rather than at the border. Time zones matter too: HMRC's questions arrive in a UK working day, and a slow answer adds weeks to UK VAT registration for Australian companies.
UK VAT Registration for Singapore Companies
Singapore businesses are used to GST registration being a turnover decision and to a straightforward digital filing. UK VAT registration for Singapore companies is a supply decision instead. Many Singapore groups also hold UK property or intellectual property through a British subsidiary, which brings its own VAT questions, and UK VAT registration for Singapore companies is often handled at the same time as a UK holding company. Trading companies should expect HMRC to ask where the goods physically sit.
UK VAT Registration for Chinese Companies
Chinese sellers face the tightest scrutiny, and it is mostly about marketplaces. Where goods are already in the UK and the seller is not established here, HMRC makes the online marketplace liable for the VAT on business to consumer sales, but the seller must still register in order to account for its zero rated deemed supply to the marketplace and to reclaim import VAT. UK VAT registration for Chinese companies is therefore not optional once stock lands, and marketplaces suspend listings when a number cannot be verified. Expect HMRC to ask for the fulfilment agreement and the import entries.
Register for UK VAT From Outside the UK
You do not need to live in Britain, or to have anybody there, to sell and to be registered. We run the whole thing remotely.
- No travel needed: Everything is handled online, wherever you and your directors live.
- No UK director rule: A company owned and run from abroad can hold a UK VAT number.
- Stock triggers flagged: We check where your goods sit before a warehouse creates a liability.
- Treaty myths cleared: VAT sits outside your double tax treaty, and we show you where you stand.
- Marketplace rules mapped: Deemed supplies and the £135 rule applied to your actual channels.
- Clear pricing, no surprises: One written quote covering the company and the registration.
VAT Registration for Non UK Companies Through an Agent
An overseas business can deal with HMRC itself, appoint an agent, or be told to appoint a tax representative. VAT registration for non UK companies almost always runs through an agent, because UK VAT registration for overseas companies creates correspondence in UK working hours and the penalties are automatic.
What a VAT Agent Does
VAT Notice 700/1 says that as long as HMRC has not directed you to appoint a tax representative, you can appoint an agent. The agent files the returns, answers the queries and keeps the authorisation current, and the liability stays with you. That is the normal arrangement for VAT registration for non UK companies, and it is what we do for clients who have no UK finance team.
When HMRC Directs You to Appoint a Tax Representative
The notice also states that HMRC can direct some non-established taxable persons to appoint a tax representative. That is a heavier arrangement than an agent, and a direction usually signals compliance history or collection risk. Notice 700/1 sets a standard for who can act, tested on suitability, compliance and integrity.
Joint and Several Liability
The difference that matters is the money. A tax representative is jointly and severally liable for any VAT debts you incur, which is why representatives are selective and why the arrangement is priced accordingly. An agent carries no such liability, and a direction is a deadline rather than a discussion.
UK Company Incorporation
Binderr
Corporate tax
19% (small profits) / 25% (main rate)
Time to Incorporate
1 Week
Cost
€350 (no pre-payment)
What Company VAT Registration in the UK Commits You To
Company VAT registration in the UK is a filing obligation, not a one off form. From the effective date you charge VAT where it is due, keep digital records, file a return every quarter through software and pay on the same deadline. Missing a return now costs points rather than a percentage, and the points add up.
Making Tax Digital From Day One
VAT Notice 700/22 applies Making Tax Digital to all VAT registered businesses, with the extension to every registered business taking effect on 1 April 2022. You keep the designatory data and the time, value and VAT of each supply made and received inside functional compatible software, and any further transfer of that data happens through digital links. Copying and pasting between spreadsheets does not qualify; emailing a spreadsheet or moving it on a portable device does.
Returns and Payments on the Same Deadline
Most businesses file every three months. GOV.UK sets the deadline for submitting the return online at one calendar month and 7 days after the end of the accounting period, and says this is also the deadline for paying HMRC. The payment has to arrive by that date even when it falls on a weekend or a bank holiday, and a nil return is still filed.
Obligation | Deadline | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
VAT return | 1 calendar month and 7 days after the period ends | Filed from compatible software, even when there is nothing to pay |
VAT payment | The same date as the return | Cleared funds, not funds sent, so allow for the transfer |
Digital records | Kept as you go | Inside functional compatible software, joined by digital links |
Late submission | Points, then £200 | 4 points on quarterly returns before the penalty starts |
That is the whole compliance calendar for a straightforward trading company. Everything else is bookkeeping quality, which is where an overseas business without a UK adviser slips. Company VAT registration in the UK settles into a quarterly rhythm once the first return is filed.
The Points Based Late Submission Penalty
For periods starting on or after 1 January 2023 the default surcharge is gone. Each late return earns a penalty point, and a fixed £200 penalty applies once you reach the threshold: 2 points on annual returns, 4 on quarterly returns and 5 on monthly ones. Another £200 follows every further late submission while you sit at the threshold. Quarterly filers therefore get four cheap mistakes and then a standing charge.
Records and Invoices
A VAT invoice shows your VAT number, the date, the customer, a description, the rate and the VAT charged. The standard rate is 20%, the reduced rate is 5% and zero rated supplies carry 0%, while postage stamps and most financial and property transactions are exempt. Zero rated sales keep your right to reclaim input VAT; exempt ones do not.
How to Find a UK Company VAT Registration Number
Use HMRC's own checker. It confirms whether a UK VAT number is valid and shows the name and address the number is registered to, which is the only free public route to find a UK company VAT registration number with any authority behind it.
Check a Company VAT Registration Number in the UK
The GOV.UK service is the place to check a company VAT registration number in the UK. Enter the number and it either confirms it is valid and returns the registered name and address, or it does not. If you are VAT registered yourself and you enter your own number too, the service also gives you proof of when you checked, which is worth keeping on file for a supplier you have not dealt with before. That is the fastest way to find a UK company VAT registration number you can rely on, and it is a different lookup from a Companies House search, which returns the company number rather than the tax number.
How to Find a VAT Registration Number a UK Company Holds
There is no public register you can browse by company name, so the practical answer to how to find a VAT registration number a UK company holds is to take it from a document. It appears on any VAT invoice the business has issued, on its VAT certificate and often in the footer of its website. Ask the counterparty, then verify what they send. That order matters, because to find a VAT registration number a UK company has quoted and never check it is how fraud gets through procurement. If you need the company number instead, our guide on how to find a UK company registration number covers it, and our guide on how to register a company in England explains what the registry holds.
EU Numbers, VIES and Northern Ireland
The UK service covers UK numbers. For an EU VAT number, GOV.UK points you to the VAT Information Exchange System, VIES, run by the European Commission. Since Brexit a Great Britain VAT number is not on VIES, which surprises EU customers running a routine supplier check, so keep a copy of your VAT certificate to send.
UK Company Incorporation
Binderr
Corporate tax
19% (small profits) / 25% (main rate)
Time to Incorporate
1 Week
Cost
€350 (no pre-payment)
Reclaiming UK VAT Without Registering
If your business has no UK supplies at all, there is another route. VAT Notice 723A lets a non-UK business reclaim UK VAT where it is not registered, liable or eligible to be registered here, has no UK place of business and makes no UK supplies beyond a short list of exceptions.
The prescribed year runs from 1 July to 30 June, and the claim has to be in by 31 December after it ends. The minimum is £130 for three months or more but less than a full year, and £16 for a full year or a final period under three months, plus a certificate of status from the official authority in your own country, valid for 12 months from issue.
There is a trap in the eligibility test. If importing goods makes you liable to register for UK VAT, the scheme is closed to you and you reclaim through your own returns. Businesses that ship stock to a UK warehouse and then claim under 723A are refused, and by then the registration is already late.
Business Banking for a VAT Registered UK Company
HMRC asks for a bank account in the name of the registering entity, and pays repayments into it. Customers and marketplaces read a UK account as a sign that the business is real. For an owner living abroad, that account is usually harder to get than the VAT number.
UK banks want a resident director and a credit footprint, and the review runs for weeks. Our regulated payment partners were built for companies owned from abroad, so the comparison below is the honest one.
Feature | UK banks | Our partners |
|---|---|---|
Opening time | Often several weeks for a new company, after credit and residency checks | Usually 2 to 4 days from a complete file |
Who they accept | NatWest needs a UK-resident applicant; Starling needs UK-resident directors and PSCs | Owners and directors can live anywhere |
Minimum balance | None on a standard business account | None |
Monthly cost | £8.50 at Barclays after 12 free months, no fee at Starling | About €30 to €100 on a published plan |
Multi-currency | Sterling first, with separate currency accounts | Several currencies in one account, with real IBANs |
International payments | £15 to send one in the Barclays app | About €5 to €25 to send |
Foreign exchange | A conversion charge of up to 2% at Barclays | About 0.25% to 1.0% over the interbank rate |
For a purely domestic company a high street account can be cheap, and we say so. For an overseas owner waiting on a VAT repayment, the partner route is faster and the currency pricing better. Read more: UK business bank accounts for non-residents and our UK business bank account guide.
The Faster Route for Non Resident Owners
We open the account alongside the company and the registration, so the details HMRC needs exist before the application is filed. The partners verify identity remotely, hold several currencies in one account with real IBANs and charge a published monthly plan. See multi-currency business accounts in the UK and our explainer on what an EMI account is.
Equals Money
Business Bank Account
Time to onboard
2 Days
Account opening fee
Free
Monthly fee
€30
3S Money
Cross-border payments
Time to onboard
4 Days
Account opening fee
Free
Monthly fee
Starting from € 100
What UK VAT Registration for Overseas Companies Costs
HMRC charges nothing to register, so VAT registration for foreign companies in the UK carries no government fee. The cost of UK VAT registration for overseas companies is the work around it: the entity, the evidence pack, quarterly filing through software and an address and an account in the country. Our UK company formation starts from €350 with no pre-payment, and the VAT work is quoted with it.
Cost item | When it is paid | Typical amount | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
UK company formation with Binderr | Once, before filing | From €350 | Structure advice, name check, articles, share capital, PSC details, the Companies House filing fee and the bank file |
VAT registration with HMRC | Once, with the application | No HMRC fee | The registration is free; our work on the evidence pack and the application is quoted with your setup |
Registered office service | Each year, if you have no suitable UK address | Quoted with your setup, against published prices of about £22 to £85 a year for the address alone | An appropriate UK address for official post |
Confirmation statement | Within 14 days after the first anniversary | £50 online | The yearly check of the company's details at Companies House |
Accounts and Company Tax Return | First accounts within 21 months, then yearly | About £1,000 to £2,500 a year for a compliance-only package, as a planning range | Statutory accounts and the tax return |
VAT returns and compatible software | Quarterly | About £150 to £250 a month where volumes are real, as a planning range | Digital records and the quarterly filing |
Business account with our banking partners | Monthly, once the account is open | About €30 to €100 a month on a published plan | A multi-currency account |
Realistic first-year total | Year one | About €3,000 to €7,000 for an overseas owned UK company that is registered and trading | Our price, year-one filings, VAT compliance and an account |
Every range is a planning figure, with sterling converted at recent rates, and the written quote is what counts. Transaction volume, importing in your own name and payroll move the total.
Trusts, foundations and regulated structures sit outside the from price and are quoted separately. For the formation side, read the cost of setting up a UK company and our view of company formation costs.
UK Company Incorporation
Binderr
Corporate tax
19% (small profits) / 25% (main rate)
Time to Incorporate
1 Week
Cost
€350 (no pre-payment)
Common Mistakes in UK VAT Registration for Overseas Companies
The expensive mistakes in UK VAT registration for overseas companies are all timing mistakes. VAT that should have been charged is still owed once the registration is backdated, and it usually cannot be collected from customers months after the invoice.
Assuming the £90,000 Threshold Applies
It is the most common error, and it is understandable, because every British guide leads with that figure. A business with no UK establishment does not get it, and the UK VAT registration a non UK company needs starts at the first supply instead. Waiting until turnover looks material is how a company ends up owing VAT on a year of sales it never charged.
Registering After the Stock Arrives
Goods in a UK warehouse are located in the UK at the point of sale, and that creates the liability regardless of value. File the registration before the first pallet lands, not when the first order ships.
Treating the Marketplace as the Whole Answer
A marketplace being liable for the VAT on a sale is not the same as the seller having no obligations. Where stock is already in the UK, HMRC requires the seller to register anyway, report the zero rated deemed supply and recover its import VAT through a return.
Reading a Tax Treaty as VAT Cover
Double tax treaties deal with income and capital. A company with no UK permanent establishment can be outside corporation tax and squarely inside VAT on the same transactions, and the two questions have to be answered separately.
Filing Outside Compatible Software
Making Tax Digital applies to every VAT registered business, so a return typed into the HMRC portal from a spreadsheet total is not compliant even when the numbers are right.
UK VAT Registration for Non UK Companies
Already have the company and only need the VAT side dealt with? That is a clean piece of work for us, and it starts with a short review.
- Existing company taken over: We pick up the file as it stands, with nothing re-formed.
- Late registration handled: Back VAT worked out and disclosed properly rather than hidden.
- Agent authorisation set up: We are appointed to deal with HMRC on your behalf.
- Returns filed on software: Making Tax Digital covered, with digital links kept intact.
- Representative directions explained: If HMRC directs you to appoint one, we tell you what it means.
- One review, one written plan: A short call, then a scope and a price you can hold us to.
Bottom Line
The threshold is the whole story. In UK VAT registration for overseas companies there is no £90,000 allowance: a business with no UK establishment registers on its first taxable supply, and HMRC dates the registration from the liability rather than from the application. Everything else, the form, the evidence, the software and the quarterly rhythm, follows from getting that date right.
If your goods will sit in a UK warehouse, if you sell digital services to British consumers, or if a marketplace has started asking for a number, the registration is already due. The cheapest version is the one filed before the first sale, because backdated VAT comes out of your margin rather than your customer's.
A UK company VAT registration is straightforward when it is done on time and expensive when it is not. We form the UK company from €350 with no pre-payment, or take over the one you have, prepare the registration and the evidence behind it, act as your agent with HMRC and keep the returns on time. Start with opening a UK business bank account if banking is the piece you are missing.
