Sell goods overseas (GB)

Overview for Businesses in Great Britain

When you sell goods overseas, you apply a zero rate of VAT but still need to submit a customs declaration.

This applies when you sell goods to:

• a VAT-registered business in a different country
• an EU consumer and the goods have a value of £135 (€150) or more per consignment
• an EU consumer and destination VAT settings haven’t been applied

Before you start, make sure you have an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number starting with GB.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/export-goods for HMRC's guide to exporting goods outside the UK.

To create a sales invoice, you need to:

1. Go to Sales and select New Invoice.
2. In the Customer field, select your overseas customer from the list, or type the customer name. If the customer isn’t a saved contact, select Add a Customer to create a record for them.
3. On the first invoice line, enter a description for the item.
4. In Goods/Services, select Goods (and related services). The VAT rate is automatically set to zero and can't be edited.
   Repeat on a new line for as many items as you need to add to your invoice.
5. Select Save.

The VAT Return

Sales of goods to all overseas businesses and consumers are reported in Box 6 - total value of sales and all other outputs excluding any VAT.

Sales are zero-rated for VAT, so you don't record any VAT value on the return.