If my Client wants to loan me equipment, but get me to buy it...

[d000hg]

So you are saying if I BUY something in the UK and SELL outside the VAT zone, I can still claim back VAT?

e.g buy from Apple UK for £1000+VAT = £1150
sell for £1000 to a company in Hong Kong
claim back VAT of £150 from HMRC (I am VAT registered)

[Platypus]

So you are saying if I BUY something in the UK and SELL outside the VAT zone, I can still claim back VAT?

e.g buy from Apple UK for £1000+VAT = £1150
sell for £1000 to a company in Hong Kong
claim back VAT of £150 from HMRC (I am VAT registered)

That is my understanding, yes.
This page seems to confirm it.

The place of supply is the place where something that you have supplied is liable to VAT. With goods, the place of supply is usually where your customer took delivery of them.

However it looks to me as though you ought to be certain to export the goods when the job is finished.

The advice on this forum regarding VAT always seem to be to phone the VAT folks as they are most helpful. That seems very sensible in this case where the goods aren't being exported immediately.

[pmeswani]

I need a MacBook for a project which has to run Mac/Windows. I'm working as a real business, hiring people and so on, not a contractor.

The client is happy to get me a MacBook to work on, but he's in HongKong so buying it in the UK is preferable to shipping it 1000s of miles. I imagine the plan is it will belong to him in theory i.e. he eventually gets it back. But he's quite keen for me to buy it and charge him, both for convenience and because I can theoretically claim the VAT back and make it cheaper.

But is that allowed? If my company buys a Mac and I charge him £1000 for "technical equipment" it belongs to my company. If I then give it to him at the end since it's unofficially a long-term loan, am I setting myself up for a fall if I ever get investigated and they ask where my Mac is?

Personally, I would buy the laptop and then charge the client cost of laptop (with or without the VAT) divided by the duration of the contract. If the client wants the laptop after you have finished the contract, then charge him the depreciated value of the laptop. Am thinking of the Dell model here but am unsure how it all really works.

Sorry if this is what everyone is suggesting.

[DaveB]

I you buy it here and export it to HK for the client you need to be carefull about customs charges as well as VAT.