Question How to avoid VAT for for the UK LLP without doing business in the UK?

[ServerlessDeveloper]

Current status:

• Myself and my business partner are non-UK residents.
• Our UK LLP provides B2B software-development services to non-UK clients (mostly EU).
• We only have a virtual address in the UK (no real office).
• All the software developers (our contractors) are located outside the UK.

The problem:
Every time when I setup UK billing details for the company subscriptions (Figma, Slack, Workspace, Zoom, etc) - there is an additional 20% charges on all of those payments because of VAT, which I didn't have before because I've used other company in a jurisdiction far away from EU and UK

Two questions here:
1) How to avoid paying VAT charged on services of the subscriptions?
2) How to avoid putting VAT charges in my own invoices when I bill clients?

Do I need to maybe register a VAT number for the company? How would that work then?

I know that my question might be dummy, and although I started working with one UK accounting company - I see that they have might lack of the understanding of these topics because they used to work with UK companies where UK company is doing business in the UK, and the owners are the UK residents

 

[Marzio]

How to avoid paying VAT charged on services of the subscriptions?

When you register for those services VAT is automatically added because you are using a UK company.

Those service providers aren’t sophisticates enough to know that LLP are tax residents where members are located.

You have to open a support ticket, explain the matter and tell where members are resident so they will edit thw VAT from where the company is resident to where members are resident.

Hopefully the member with 51% of the profit share that is controlling the company is resident in a 0% VAT country otherwise there’s no point.

 

[ServerlessDeveloper]

When you register for those services VAT is automatically added because you are using a UK company.
...

Thank you for the explanation, Marzio! I don't think that Google / Slack / Zoom will care about it.
However, if I register a VAT number, they will use it to make reverse-charge because there is a setting in billing where you can put your VAT

We are both (owners) residents of the country without VAT (outside EU)

 

[Marzio]

The problem is that LLP is not tax resident in UK so unless you generate UK sales you will not get a VAT number.

 

[ServerlessDeveloper]

But if I generate UK sales, then my company is "doing business in the UK", and they it would have different (bigger) taxes, Am I right?

 

[Marzio]

UK LLP is tax free only if doesn’t generate UK sales so yes either you’ll pay UK taxes or 20% VAT on those services.