Business owners who sell products, at some point will have to assign a percentage of the sale which will be paid in tax to their government or other governments. This is called “Value Added Tax (VAT)”, and it is a percentage rate value.

A seller from the UK who is new in business does not need to register for VAT until their sales reach a significant amount. In 2017, this is GBP 85,000 on a rolling 12-month basis. This means that they must keep a running 12-month total of their sales for the previous 12 months, if this total goes over GBP 85,000 then they must register for VAT.

To be clear, tax on the sale is only paid on a one to one basis. So, a sale has its VAT paid only once to one country’s revenue collection agency. Cross Border VAT deals with the VAT element of sales for countries in the EU which comprise of 28 countries.

If you need to register for VAT here is where you can do it:

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/registration/newbusiness/what-to-do-next