4 Eyes Ltd: VAT, Tax and Customs Consultants

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4 Eyes Ltd – Tax Solutions, a leading VAT and Customs/ Excise Duties consultancy specialising in facilitating international corporations with operations in the UK and Europe and also in the provision of expert indirect taxation services to UK businesses.

4 Eyes Ltd will advise on structure, secure UK VAT registration and where necessary, act as UK fiscal agent in VAT matters. 4 Eyes Ltd will also provide general consultancy on tax optimisation and compliance as well as tax investigation support and tribunal representation.

Many UK companies will incur input VAT on activities in other EU countries where they are not required to be VAT registered. Likewise, non-UK companies may incur significant amounts of UK VAT. In both cases, VAT recovery may be possible. 4 Eyes Ltd will advise clients and handle all aspects of the VAT reclaim procedure.

4 Eyes Ltd has unrivalled experience in accountancy and legal matters and can offer a second opinion to that of your established advisors, who may lack expertise in our specialised field. Furthermore, 4 Eyes Ltd can provide outsourced VAT services to businesses that would otherwise incur the expense of in-house provision.

4 Eyes Ltd prides itself on its commitment to enhancing its clients business, offering a personal service, speedy response and top quality solutions.

Our services include:

• Specialist VAT consultancy
• Specialist Customs consultancy
• Intrastat consultancy
• VAT outsourcing  
• UK and EU VAT registration
• Economic Operator Registration & Identification (EORI)
• VAT and Customs compliance
• Inter group support 
• VAT training
• Advice to multinational corporations
• Fiscal agency
• Recovery of previous overpaid/ underclaimed taxes
• Recovery of UK VAT for companies based outside of the UK (EC 8th & 13th Directives)
• Recovery of VAT in other EU Member states (EC 8th Directive)
• Resolution of ongoing disputes with HM Revenue & Customs
• Counter investigation support
• VAT Tribunal representation  

 
An overview of our activities:

VAT compliance and outsourcing

4 Eyes Ltd acts on behalf of numerous UK and international companies, ensuring their VAT compliance. Where necessary our services can include preliminary advice, obtaining any necessary registrations and consents and subsequent fiscal agency. Where firms are based in the UK, in addition to offering their tax teams ongoing support and assistance, we are increasingly being asked to provide outsourced VAT services whereby we will take responsibility for managing the client's UK VAT affairs. This offers clients VAT expertise tailored to their business needs at a reduced cost to in-house provision.

International VAT consultancy

4 Eyes Ltd has considerable experience in advising clients with multi national operations on the recovery of VAT incurred in the UK and throughout the EU. We handle all aspects of the reclaim and have recently recovered more than £500,000 UK VAT on behalf of a single US based client.

Tax optimisation

4 Eyes Ltd has a leading property VAT practice. We advise developers of residential and commercial property, builders, surveyors, architects, financiers and registered social landlords in VAT compliance and VAT efficient structuring of construction projects. This is an extremely complex area and where advice is not taken, mistakes are both common and costly - a recent and well publicised example of failure to take correct or timely VAT advice is the 2012 Olympic development where irrecoverable VAT on construction costs was not budgeted for.

Sometimes opportunities may exist to mitigate VAT. 4 Eyes Ltd has successfully introduced an arrangement whereby RSLs can recover all the VAT on new developments which was previously irrecoverable. Unlike similar schemes offered by other tax advisors, only our arrangement encompasses the scope for retrospective application and the associated 'windfall' VAT savings that this can entail.

4 Eyes Ltd has developed VAT property Solutions, an essential tool for anybody considering undertaking building works, enabling them to identify the correct VAT treatment and any potential savings or pitfalls, in time to take appropriate action. Basic access is free, subject to online registration - see link above.

International network & tax agency service

4 Eyes Ltd is a member of a European VAT network. Our affiliation with this and the European Criminal Bar Association enables us to assist with tax issues wherever they arise and will ensure that our clients are always advised by the appropriate national experts in any EU Member State.

Tax agency and Intrastat services

Working together with its EU VAT network, 4 Eyes Ltd provides specialist tax advice and tax agency services to non-UK based companies trading in the UK. Our services can include recovery of VAT in any EU Member State.

4 Eyes Ltd also offers non-UK businesses trading in the UK and UK businesses trading in the EU, assistance with complying with UK reporting requirements.

Resolution of ongoing disputes with HMRC

4 Eyes Ltd is well positioned to assist clients or their advisors with negotiating with HMRC. It is our experience that assessments to tax, interest and penalties may be made without proper consideration of all the issues or even the figures involved.  As such we can analyse the correct position and then negotiate a resolution. In a recent instance, a client was assessed for more than £60,000. Following our becoming invloved, not only was the original assessment withdrawn but our client eventually made a substantial VAT reclaim! 

Tax investigation support
 
4 Eyes Ltd managed the largest EU anti dumping duty investigation on behalf of a consumer electronics multi national where a demand for £27m arrears of UK Customs' Duty was unequivocally and entirely withdrawn.

Tribunals

4 Eyes Ltd has considerable experience in representing clients at the VAT & Duties Tribunal. A notable success was the withdrawal in its entirety of an assessment of £375,000 VAT and the quashing of a personal bankruptcy order against our client. This matter was reported in Taxation Magazine. Where necessary, 4 Eyes Ltd can also instruct expert tax counsel to act on behalf of its clients.

For more examples of recent assignments indicative of the scope of our work go to the Expert Services tab.

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