Request for VAT/TVA number from Leica ?????

[wlaidlaw]

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I have today received from Leica a request for my VAT/TVA number. This was sent by a Susanne Strnadel. Has anyone else received one of these requests? The track back on the email headers is genuine so it is not phishing. I am no longer registered for VAT in the UK nor TVA in France and have advised them accordingly. As I don't have any outstanding invoices from Leica, it all seems a bit odd.

 

Wilson

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[Ronazle]

I have today received from Leica a request for my VAT/TVA number. This was sent by a Susanne Strnadel. Has anyone else received one of these requests? The track back on the email headers is genuine so it is not phishing. I am no longer registered for VAT in the UK nor TVA in France and have advised them accordingly. As I don't have any outstanding invoices from Leica, it all seems a bit odd.

 

Wilson

 

Please excuse the probably uninformed reply, but could it be that they saw an omission while auditing their books or preparing taxes? That sort of thing happens over here fairly often. regards, ron

[jaapv]

Even so, it looks like phishing...Or some Leica employee with a bee in the bonnet;)

[pgk]

Have you had any work carried out by Leica directly? If so, I can understand it as they required mine to deal with a 'pro' repair (only one needed in 5 years I hasten to add if you exclude accidental damage) and I suspect that their intent may well be to route other repairs via distributors..... . I can't see that a vat number is of any illicit use to anyone as they can be checked on line.

[earleygallery]

It could just have been sent in error. Even Leica make mistakes

[wlaidlaw]

Have you had any work carried out by Leica directly? If so, I can understand it as they required mine to deal with a 'pro' repair (only one needed in 5 years I hasten to add if you exclude accidental damage) and I suspect that their intent may well be to route other repairs via distributors..... . I can't see that a vat number is of any illicit use to anyone as they can be checked on line.

 

Paul,

 

The last work that Leica carried out for me was the replacement of my M9 sensor but that was done free of charge and was in February 2012. Before that, I had a RF re-aligment done on my M9 in spring 2010 under warranty. The only paid work they did for me in the last few years was the M8 upgrade, which was autumn 2008 and a 35 Summilux coding in spring 2008. I am on their Professional Register.

 

As the email header and routing checked out, I don't think it is a phishing email. If it is just me receiving the email, it just seems a bit odd.

 

Wilson

[pgk]

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I am on their Professional Register.

Wilson

 

I think that this is the reason - they expect pro registered photographers to be vat registered for EU invoicing and will need the vat number to allow them to invoice inside the EU without vat. It simply sounds like a record update to me.

[Aviator]

Without a valid VAT Number they would have to put the german 19% VAT on the bill.

[andybarton]

Which is perfectly fine if you are not VAT registered. Most people aren't and therefore pay their tax.

[wlaidlaw]

My last few jobs have all been warranty or FOC. The last paid job was in 2008. Five years seems a bit of delay in requesting my VAT number. I have just checked the M8 upgrade bill and I paid VAT.

 

Wilson

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Wilson,

 

Why don't you call them on the telephone & ask them?

 

I would.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[wlaidlaw]

Michael,

 

I don't want to stir things up and get the response "oh we made a mistake and should have charged you for the last repair." I originally posted to see if others had had this letter and if not I was puzzled as to why just me. There are lots of us on this forum who are registered with Leica as professional photographers. I wonder if as the last repair was on an "ex-gratis" basis, if I had been VAT registered, Leica would have been able to recover the VAT on the notional cost of the repair. This is like if you damage your car and the bill from the repairer is paid for by an insurance company, if you are VAT registered, the insurance company can recover the VAT on the repair bill from the government.

 

The complication of the whole VAT system always amazes me, with some things being exempt and others zero rated (someone tried to explain the difference to me but I fell asleep half way through). I do wonder if everything would be cheaper and simpler if we had stuck to a sales tax like the USA has done.

 

Wilson

[jaapv]

Yep - like VAT can be charged to an intermediate user who has to charge VAT to the end user, but he can recover the VAT from the tax office - except when he is the end user, exempt or delivers a service that is charged @ 0%, in which latter case he does have a VAT number but is prohibited from using it and not obliged to keep VAT records (like me).

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Wilson & Jaap,

 

Thank you both for the explanation.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[ho_co]

I do wonder if everything would be cheaper and simpler if we had stuck to a sales tax like the USA has done.

 

Oh, don't worry, Wilson, voices are growing in the US for starting a VAT system here.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Everybody,

 

Value Added Tax is a regressive tax that disproportionately effects people inversely relative to income.

 

The more money a person earns the less time they spend working to pay the government taxes during the year.

 

A person of moderate means in many parts of the World spends 6 months or more of their working year working to pay taxes, including Value Added Taxes, and therefore has 6 months or less of income to spend for their needs outside of governmental services, ie: schools, military, etc.

 

A person of greater means often pays all of their taxes, including Value Added Taxes, with somewhat less than that 6 months or so of income. This leaves them with more income per month earned over more than 6 months to spend or to use beyond taxes. A double benefit. If someone is even more wealthy they can often spend even less time again, including Value Added Taxes, to pay their taxes. They then have even more months of even more again income. An increase of even more of their time spent earning even more income for themselves. A double increase over what was already a double increase.

 

I have always looked at Value Added Taxes as 1 of the great failures of the European & Canadian Taxation Systems.

 

Much like some of the onerous Property Tax systems which exist in some of the States of the USofA.

 

Both are Regressive & Destructive Tax systems that most severely hobble the poor & most needy & inegalitarianly take away opportunity from the majority of people who work for a living in order to benefit a few.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[IkarusJohn]

We have a uniform GST, with no exemptions (other than financial charges). So you pay GST on basically everything, and it's built into the cost of living. If you're registered for GST, and you incur an expense as part of your taxable activity, you claim the GST back, then add on GST to the cost you pass on to the end consumer.

 

Provided the GST rate is reasonable, such taxes tend to be very fair. But, as Michael says, if the rate is high, while GST/VAT is efficient, it tends to hit poor people hardest.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello John,

 

What is fair about 1 person working for 6 months to get the same Governmental Services that another person gets for working half or less of that?

 

Even though both people may pay the same number of Units of Currency: A poor or working person has to pay with a bigger portion of their lives at work for: Their children to go to school, or: To have the Fire Department come & put out the burning fire in their smaller, less valuable house. Than a richer person does.

 

Fair?

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

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[wlaidlaw]

Oh, don't worry, Wilson, voices are growing in the US for starting a VAT system here.

 

Howard,

 

I can imagine whose those voices are - accountants, civil servants and politicians. VAT is a bonanza for them and a nightmare for everybody else.

 

Some years ago we had a elderly friend, who ran an excellent small engineering company, making parts for classic and racing cars. He was a very skilled engineer but not good with finance. He was in effect hounded into an early grave by the VAT collectors, assisted by an incompetent accountant. After he died from pneumonia and heart problems, the executors sacked the accountant and brought in a new one. It turned out that he was owed nearly two hundred thousand pounds by the VAT authorities not the other way round, as they had claimed.

 

Wilson

[wattsy]

Some years ago we had a elderly friend, who ran an excellent small engineering company, making parts for classic and racing cars. He was a very skilled engineer but not good with finance. He was in effect hounded into an early grave by the VAT collectors, assisted by an incompetent accountant. After he died from pneumonia and heart problems, the executors sacked the accountant and brought in a new one. It turned out that he was owed nearly two hundred thousand pounds by the VAT authorities not the other way round, as they had claimed.

 

Sounds like the accountant was the problem. Whether you agree with the tax or not, VAT is IMO pretty easy to understand and administer.