Updated VAT handling for Brexit

[Andrew_Stewart]

I am trying to update my code’s VAT handling in the light of Brexit:

How to record sales and purchase transactions with businesses based outside...

It seems that FreeAgent is automatically converting an EC status of EC Services to Reverse Charge for transaction explanations dated on or after 01.01.2021. If so, can I leave my code alone or will this conversion ever be deprecated?

Also, are any other automatic conversions happening in this area?

Many thanks!

Yours,
Andrew Stewart

[Ewa_Lipinska]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for bearing with me while I checked the details of the new rules with the team responsible for this part of the app. I can confirm that there are no plans to deprecate the EC Services > Reverse Charge conversion as we’ll always want to handle pre-2021 EC statuses. There are no other automatic conversions in this area, though in terms of other changes you’ll notice that the API will now return an error if EC Goods is set for a bank transaction explanation dated after 1/1/2021 and the business is located in Great Britain.

Best wishes,

Ewa

[Andrew_Stewart]

Hi Ewa,

Thanks very much for checking into this. That information is most helpful.

On the bank transaction explanation docs, presumably "Reverse Charge" is now a valid ec_status value?

Best wishes,
Andrew

[Ewa_Lipinska]

Hi Andrew,

For now, please continue using EC Services as the ec_status. Our engineers are planning on adding a note to that effect to the documentation, and if this changes in the long term (as I’d imagine it likely might!), we’ll make sure it’s announced on the forum.

Best wishes,

Ewa

[Rhino]

There is a discussion here from someone I think is on the API team about this

Handling VAT post-Brexit

Hi all, Just a quick note to say we’ve updated the API documentation with guidance on setting the VAT options (ec_status) on bank transaction explanations, bills, credit notes, estimates, expenses and invoices. If the item being entered is dated 1/1/2021 or later and the business is based in Great Britain (England, Scotland or Wales) then EC Goods is no longer a valid option due to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. EC Goods will continue to be accepted for items dated before 1/1/2021 and for b…

Its disappointing that on Feb 24th (55 days after the end of the transition period) the API has still not been updated to return valid data.

[david.whitby]

Hi Andrew and Rhino,

As mentioned on the other thread, please rest assured this hasn’t been forgotten about and we’ll post an update as soon as we’re ready to roll out the necessary changes.

Thanks