Marginal VAT on car sales / UK Non resident company?

[noentry]

Hi

I have been dealing with VAT that is killing my business. I will try to briefly explain the situation.

I am running a car sales business in an EU country, basically we buy damaged stuff, repair and sell. We have to pay VAT from the margin that we make when selling. Now everything would be fair but 99% repair places do not offer any invoices and especially it is hard to get any VAT invoices when doing car repairs. Another problem is that most of our competitors buy cars with money in hand and they do fake invoices. That is not possible with my business as I have to pay via bank or card.

The main thing that I am trying to do is to find a way to get this margin lower. I am looking for a place where I could register a company + bank account and there would be no VAT so I can sell the car to another company here in the EU with a higher price so there will be less margin to pay VAT.

I have noticed that in the UK they say that if you are non resident and you do not do any sales to the UK you are not required to register for VAT. Now this does not sound right to me but I just wanted to ask if anyone has any information on how would that work? I actually had another idea to register a few companies in the UK and not hit the VAT threshold and do the same in some other EU countries with high VAT thresholds.

Maybe someone has any other idea how to pay lower VAT?

 

[countryfree]

... it is hard to get any VAT invoices when doing car repairs...

Obviously, you're not in Germany. You may be in Lithuania...

Regarding your problem, there's VAT everywhere in the EU. Then cars cars must be registered, and that has a cost, unless you are a dealer, with a shop, paying tax and everything. I'm afraid the cost of registration, and the time it takes to get it, would void any advantage...

 

[noentry]

Obviously, you're not in Germany. You may be in Lithuania...

Regarding your problem, there's VAT everywhere in the EU. Then cars cars must be registered, and that has a cost, unless you are a dealer, with a shop, paying tax and everything. I'm afraid the cost of registration, and the time it takes to get it, would void any advantage...

Haha, exactly I am in Lithuania.

I think I could avoid registering cars somewhere else. I import them from Scandinavia, so I would buy them with my UK company and sell them to someone here in Lithuania with the higher price from my UK company. I would still live in Lithuania tho tax guys would have very hard time finding out how this works. The cars physically will not leave the EU.

 

[countryfree]

I see trouble ahead with the customs. You will sell the car with a bill of sale (with the price) from a UK company, but the registration certificate would be from another country. That is highly suspicious...
Besides, the UK is no longer part of the EU, so if someone buy anything from a UK company, he will have to pay tax on it...
I guess you have to forget the UK, and do everything within the EU.