What is a C79 and how do you account for Import VAT?

The Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) scheme was implemented in the EU UK 1 July 2009. You will require an EORI number if you import from or export to countries outside of the EU.

Goods are declared to customs using form C88 Single Administrative Document (SAD) that in most cases is presented in an electronic format. Import VAT is dealt with in the same way as a Customs Duty. You can pay it outright at importation, or under the duty deferment arrangements explained in Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges which also covers Simplified Import VAT Accounting (SIVA). This is a scheme that reduces the level of financial security required to guarantee the payment of import VAT through the duty deferment system.

Subject to the normal rules, you can claim as input tax any import VAT you pay on goods, provided those goods are imported for the purpose of your business. Your claim must normally be made on the VAT Return for the accounting period during which the importation took place.

C79
The normal evidence of payment of import VAT is the import VAT certificate (form C79), which is issued monthly.

You need to hold official evidence of VAT paid on imported goods before you can recover the VAT as input tax.

The C79 certificate is issued in connection with most import procedures, and also post importation corrections and removals from a customs warehouse.

The certificate is made up of twin sided A4 sheets with a blue print background.

Flexible Accounting System (FAS) paid VAT transactions will be shown under your EORI number.

Neither the agent’s VAT number nor the agent’s reference number appears on the certificate for immediate payment and FAS paid transactions. If this causes you particular difficulties you may wish to consider arranging duty deferment facilities.

The accounting date will be shown against each item on the certificate, and transactions will appear on the certificate for the month covering that accounting date – for example, transactions bearing an accounting date of October will normally appear on the October C79 certificates. For transactions paid by duty deferment the accounting date is normally the date of clearance of the goods. For immediate payment and FAS items the accounting date may, in some instances, be later than the date of the declaration. So some goods cleared in late October may have a November accounting date, and will therefore appear on the November certificate.

Transactions that are the subject of an accounting query will appear on the first certificate issued after the query has been dealt with.
A single total of VAT for the period will appear at the end of the final page.

Certificates cover accounting transactions made in each calendar month should be received around the 24th of each month following imports logged the previous month.

Here are the instructions on how to enter C79 import VAT

The cost including the freight will have been paid to the freight company such as FEDEX

Sage One

https://help.sageone.com/en_uk/accounting/import-vat-and-duty.html

Xero

https://central.xero.com/s/article/Using-non-standard-tax-rates-UK

steve@bicknells.net

Will you be exporting in Export Week?

Export - Red Hanging Cargo Container.

Its the UK Trade and Investment’s 6th annual Export Week (10 to 14 November).

Previous Export Weeks have seen over 17,000 companies in the UK attend exporting focussed events. This week we will again have over 70 events across the UK; there will be at least one event per day in every part of the UK.

According to a recent survey by Barclays Corporate Banking, in new emerging markets 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product which displays the Union Jack.

A survey by Exact back in June 2014 showed…

The survey of 453 SME leaders found that 54% of SMEs now sell products or services abroad. It found that exporting is the biggest growth area for 19% of the UK’s SMEs, and 68% of those who currently export saw export sales increase in 2013 over the previous year. For 18%, exports now account for over half their sales.

HMRC have a helpsheet TH/FS15 which has some helpful advice on importing and exporting.

So will your business be exporting this week?

steve@bicknells.net

Installing Sage 2012 using Templates

Whether you are changing systems or just want a fresh start with the latest version its worth trying the Sage Templates to upload data.

Once you have loaded Sage, click on Help, then About then Program Directory and you will find a folder called Import Templates, in that folder are Templates for:

Audit Trail Transactions

Customer Record

Fixed Assets Record

Nominal Record

Product Record

Project Record

Project Transaction

Stock Transaction

Supplier Record

The templates are excel files and on the top row are comments on the content required. If you are already using Sage you can export the data, clean it and then re import it.

Basically as a minimum you will want to import outstanding customer and supplier transactions (using the audit trail), static data for customers, suppliers and nominal and unreconciled bank transactions. The opening trial balance can be entered using the Audit Trial import.

Use the Practice Company on Sage until you are confident you know your imports will work.

It takes a bit of time to get the imports correct but once its done it works really well.

Steve@bicknells.net