Invoice a client in New York, Berlin or Dubai without getting VAT, currency or withholding wrong.
- £39
- 9 templates
- Updated at every Budget
- 30-day refund
- Read Module 1 free
A US client asks for a W-9. A German agency wants “the reverse charge line” on the invoice. Adobe and AWS quietly count towards your £90,000 VAT threshold. Each of these has one correct answer, and getting any of them wrong produces a bill that lands years later, with interest, addressed to you.
The whole subject turns on one rule, the place of supply, and once you can apply it the rest is wording and record-keeping. The course gives you the flowchart, the exact invoice wording for each case to copy rather than compose, the two-date rule for foreign currency, and a line-by-line W-8BEN so that 30% of a US fee does not disappear into withholding.
What’s inside
- The master flowchart: is UK VAT charged? — for any service, any client, any country
- Exact invoice wording blocks (Article 196, outside-the-scope, not-registered) — copy, don’t compose
- The reverse-charge-on-purchases rule with the £93,400 worked example nobody else covers
- Foreign currency: the two-date rule, the three legal rate choices, FX gains/losses done right
- W-8BEN line by line · EU digital products & OSS vs platforms · payment rails compared
The 9 templates
Excel toolkit: VIES check log · FX rate log with auto gain/loss · reverse-charge register · rolling 12-month threshold monitor with warnings. Plus: two ready-made cross-border invoices, client tax-status form, W-8BEN completion sheet, month-end checklist.
How you would actually use it
Run every client through the flowchart once and record the answer on the client tax-status form; from then on the invoice template for that case does the rest. The reverse-charge register and the rolling threshold monitor take five minutes a month. The FX log records the two dates for each foreign-currency invoice and computes the gain or loss automatically.
Read Module 1 free. “Place of supply: the master rule” — the opening module in full, nothing cut, plus the contents page. No email, no signup. Download the free sample (PDF, 5 pages)
Buying more than one? The Complete Freelancer System, all five original courses, is £97 against £215 at full price. See the full course list.
Not for you if: you sell goods, have staff abroad, or a client raised “permanent establishment” — that’s specialist advice.
Questions people ask before buying
I am not VAT-registered. Does any of this apply to me?
Yes, in two ways. Overseas services you buy can count towards the threshold and force registration, and your invoices still need the right wording for the client’s own VAT position.
Does it cover selling goods abroad?
No. It is written for services. Goods, staff abroad and permanent-establishment questions are specialist territory.
What is the W-8BEN and do I really need it?
It is the form that tells a US payer you are a UK resident entitled to treaty rates, so they do not withhold 30% of your fee. The course completes it line by line.
Which exchange rate am I supposed to use?
HMRC allows three approaches. The course explains each and the FX log applies the one you choose consistently.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Figures checked against HMRC and other primary sources at publication — see our editorial policy.