VAT number as a sole trader vs a company VAT number in Poland / 'trading as' question

Hi. Just a quick question in relation to VAT. I am set up here as one of the 'sole trader company' types. My personal NIP is used as my Tax number. I have recently been told that as it is a personal vat number, i cant claim back VAT as i need a Company VAT number to do that. 2 questions:

- Does this sound right? (it came from a reliable source so would be be inclined to believe it)
- As a sole trader company set up, can you get a 'company' VAT number or do you need to be set up as a SP Z.o.o type of scenario?

Also, just a quick question in relation to 'trading as'...
- As stated set up a with a company name. I will probably have 2 streams of business - one languages and one IT and would like differentiate in the marketing, while maintaining the core name e.g. abc - IT and abc - Languages.(not actual name but just wanted to give an idea as to what i am on about. Can i do this or do i need to get different trading names? As a sole trader company(or whatever it is called), can you be set up more than once?

Sorry for all the queries, and any direction would be appreciated.

Regards
vincent

Ah, Vince, you should be sending these questions to me ;)


No, it's not right. The NIP is a 'tax identification number' - in short, a unique identifier for your business. It's separate to the concept of VAT registration/numbers. But this is correct - without VAT registration, you can't claim back the VAT on purchases.


Yep - you can register for VAT. You'll get a separate number for this - something like "PL 2343 2834 4594 2345". You'll have this in addition to the NIP and REGON.


Poland is quite brilliant in this respect - you can have a name (for instance - VINCERULES) and then advertise quite easily as VINCERULES-LANGUAGES or VINCERULES-IT - or even as something totally different. It's quite common for companies to be registered as something quite strange, but to trade as something totally different - I know one example where the company name is totally, completely different to the actual trading name. There's not even a requirement to say "trading as" - you just trade as whatever you want. Just make sure that you have the relevant PKD codes registered and you're good to go.


Nope, only one registration for all - the only requirement is the PKD codes must be registered.

Hey delphi..man.... :-)
Thank you kindly. Responses are very much appreciated and very helpful. Just in the process of getting the language thing up and running.
Just one more, which you might know.....

- To make the returns for a business like mine and yours, each month....how much time is realistically involved? Reviewing my accountant and want to be prepared.

Thanks. Hope married life is treating you well.....

hopefullly catch you for a beer soon.
vincent .

Merged: Company in Poland VAT business question - claiming it back?

My friend (who is a bit dodgy) has a polish company, and buys a lot of things for his personal use, such as television, phones, washing machine, car etc, and claims back VAT, or buys VAT free. Eg a car might cost 100kzl but he buys it for 75kzl through his company.

His company has very little turnover, maybe 3-4kzl a year.

How is it possible to claim such big VAT back, when his company doesnt charge out more VAT than he reclaims?

Why won't you ask him? Oh - he is a dodgy person, maybe same like the way he is running his business?
It's hard to judge since there's no data how much of VAT he gets back.

Merged: How do I check a company or person's VAT number?

I read on another thread that someone NIP might also be their VAT number. However, that was later said to be incorrect.

If someone charges me VAT, should their VAT number be on their invoice? And how do I check the VAT number is genuine or the trader is indeed VAT registered?

This is the only site I found ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?selectedLanguage=pl

I'd like to check if someone is registered using their name or business name, but I don't know how.

try here prod.ceidg.gov.pl
and do a search for entrepreneur. My VAT number is just my NIP number in Poland, if it's to a UE customer PL is to be in front of the numbers. If someone charges VAT their number should be shown on their invoice. Hope that helps, advice based on info that I received from my accountant :)

ems.ms.gov.pl/krs/wyszukiwaniepodmiotu - official register of polish companies
prod.ceidg.gov.pl/CEIDG/CEIDG.Public.UI/Search.aspx - official register of polish individual entrepreneurs

NIP is a VAT number but that doesn't mean that everyone having NIP is a VAT payer.

you can check if someone is a registered VAT payer here: ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=pl

NIP should be included in the invoice.

Thanks MIPK. This is now the second invoice from yet another company that I am being asked to pay VAT on, and yet with and no VAT number anywhere showing.


Thanks Legate.

Pls check if the following number a valid registeration number for a Polish company.24378680