Contract with HPE through a German Recruitment Agency

[DallasDad]

Welcome to DXC Technology!
What a meaningless name that appears to be.

Another 300+ getting CR or VR from HPe by end of March ahead of the merger.
Really glad I don't work there anymore.

I am now an HPe client so face off to increasingly demoralised workers, quite a few of the staff going this time are in pools of one so they don't even get to play the 'will it be me this time' game.

[TOSH1]

I am currently contracting with HPE and they have been bought by CSC.

Where I am, they have just got rid of 8 contractors as they try and save money.

I take you will be based in the UK and not in Germany?

[BlasterBates]

If you are based in the UK you should not be charging German VAT, it would be either UK VAT or none. It looks like they're not used to working with contractors who don't work in Germany.

As mentioned above this could only possibly work if you had a German subsidiary, which incidentally would make sense if you had to spend part of your time in Germany,.

[nomadd]

In monetary terms one of my best.

in technology terms possibly one of the worst.

HP always used to be full of these sorts of characters:-

You are confusing HP with HPE. Totallly different animals.

HPE is full of these sorts of characters:-

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JU189rHBIIQ/maxresdefault.jpg

[MrMarkyMark]

HPE - worst contract I ever had....

In monetary terms one of my best.

in technology terms possibly one of the worst.

HP always used to be full of these sorts of characters:-

[stek]

Eek, CSC as well. Another bunch of *******...

[Noddy53]

Thanks for the information so far.

I have engaged an accountant yet as this is my first contract, any recommendations of good accountants to provide a turn key service will be appreciated.

HPE have advised me that the are merging with CSC and if anything this will only add to the project as I am being contracted as a Data Centre Migration expert providing HLD's for migration of clients from a historic hosting platform to their new shinny offering, so happy with the work being offered and the rate, was just thrown with the German agency

[borderreiver]

I will be 100% home based in the UK, so am wondering if
I need to charge VAT?
If so at UK or German Rate?
If German Rate how is this collected?

Assuming HSE isn't just a bunch of cowboys you should be avoiding at all costs ...

1. No. It's out of scope of UK VAT
2. No. Unless you have a German subsidiary of your Ltd I don't see how that would be legal.
3. No.

I'm not an accountant but I invoice EU clients all the time so I'm pretty sure that's correct.

At the risk of becoming an NLUK clone, what does your accountant say?

[stek]

HPE - worst contract I ever had....

[eek]

Hpe have uk agencies so how on earth have you ended up going via Germany?

Separately hpe is going through a structural renewal at the Moment so it may be a good time to join. Equally it may not be depending on your skill set .

[nomadd]

also is there anything else i should be worried about?

hpe.

Omg.

Omfg.

[Noddy53]

Have successfully been offered my first ever contract (after 26 years in perm employment before being made redundant) with HPE and received my contract today and realised that the recruitment agency used is based in Germany.

The contract states that I will be invoicing the recruitment agencies German address and VAT charged at 19% which is the current German VAT rate.

I will be 100% home based in the UK, so am wondering if
I need to charge VAT?
If so at UK or German Rate?
If German Rate how is this collected?

Also is there anything else I should be worried about?

Many thanks in advance.