VAT on marketplace purchases — what you can and cannot reclaim
The most common mistake in this area is treating every tax line on an order page as reclaimable input VAT. Usually it is not, and the document that would let you reclaim is somewhere else entirely.
Two different taxes that look alike
| Supplier VAT | Import VAT | |
|---|---|---|
| Charged by | A VAT-registered seller in your VAT area | Customs, the carrier, or the platform at checkout |
| Appears on | The supplier's invoice, with their VAT number | An import document, a carrier invoice, or a platform tax line |
| Reclaimable | Yes, if you are registered and it is a business purchase | Sometimes — and only with the right paperwork |
A merchant outside your VAT area does not charge your VAT. There is nothing to reclaim on the purchase itself, no matter what the order page's "tax" row says. That row is frequently a sales tax, a platform-collected import charge, or an estimate.
What makes a document valid for reclaim
Requirements vary, but a VAT invoice generally has to show:
- The supplier's VAT registration number
- Your business name and address, and in some regimes your own VAT number
- The date of supply and a unique invoice number
- A description of what was supplied
- The net amount, the VAT rate, and the VAT amount, as separate figures
Note what is not on that list: the word "invoice". A receipt carrying all of the above works. A document titled "Invoice" that omits the supplier's VAT number does not. The header is presentation; the fields are the substance.
This is why most marketplace order pages fail as VAT documents. They show a total and sometimes a tax figure, but no supplier VAT number and no rate — because the marketplace is not the supplier and the supplier may not be registered anywhere near you.
The platform-collected case
For low-value imports, the EU (via IOSS) and the UK both make the marketplace collect VAT at the point of sale rather than at the border. When that happens the tax genuinely was charged, and the platform is required to make documentation available — but it is usually a separate document from the order summary, and finding it is its own exercise. If a shipment was handled this way, that document is the one your accountant needs.
Reverse charge, briefly
For cross-border B2B services and some goods within the EU, the supplier charges no VAT and you account for it yourself at your own rate, claiming it back in the same return where you are entitled to. The document should say so — a note such as "reverse charge" and both VAT numbers. If you are buying business services from another member state and no VAT was charged, this is probably why, and it is a bookkeeping step rather than a saving.
Practical rules
- Keep the purchase record regardless. Substantiating a business expense and reclaiming VAT are separate questions. The first one almost always applies.
- Record the currency you were charged in. Not the one the site displayed.
- Never let the figures round. A document where the rows do not sum to the total is the fastest way to have a claim questioned.
- Produce it at purchase time. Order history thins out long before your retention period ends.
OrderVault puts your VAT number and rate on the documents it produces, keeps every charge as its own line under the wording the marketplace used, and refuses to print a total it could not verify against the line items. It runs entirely in your browser.