Congratulations to the VAT man

No, I am not being serious!

This month's VAT return comes with a set of notes about changes to rules which taxpayers may need to be careful about.

One of these (item 9) tells us that if we export services to which the reverse charge applies, we will have to produce EC sales lists from January 2010. A quick look at the EC Sales List page doesn't mention the change at all, so there is no help from there.

The notes say that more information is available in Business Brief 53/08. Sadly not much more information. It tells you how the change in rules has come about and that you will have to comply with the new rules, but not how to find out what they are.

Looking up reverse charge tells you about some complications, but not the basics. It also tells you that different EC countries apply different rules - so here is another point of possible confusion - as the reverse charge is going to be applied by your customer in another country, do you need to find out about the rules in his country or do you apply the UK rules (which obviously don't apply as the supply is being made to someone outside the UK).

The answer - will have to wait for another day.