If you sell to, or in, the UK from overseas, the honest answer is “it depends on what you are doing”, but for most of the businesses we help, it is yes. This page walks you through when a UK VAT number is required, which thresholds apply to you (and which do not), and what actually counts as being “established” in the UK.
In short: an overseas business with no UK establishment has no UK VAT registration threshold. If you make taxable supplies in the UK, for example by selling goods to UK customers on DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) terms, you generally must register from your first sale. UK businesses get a turnover threshold; overseas businesses without a UK establishment do not.
You will usually need to register if you are making taxable supplies in the UK. The most common trigger for the businesses we work with is selling goods to UK customers on DDP terms, because that makes you the importer and then the domestic seller of the goods in the UK (we explain this in DDP explained).
Other situations (selling through an online marketplace, holding stock in a UK warehouse, or supplying certain services) have their own rules. There are also certain exceptions and exemptions available, which means you could ask for permission not to register for UK VAT, for example, if the UK VAT rate on all the goods you sell is 0%. If you are not sure which bucket you are in, that is exactly the sort of thing to ask us.
UK-established businesses only have to register once their taxable turnover passes the UK registration threshold. It is tempting to assume the same threshold protects an overseas seller. It does not. Since 2012 there has been no registration threshold for non-established taxable persons (NETPs), and since 1 January 2021 the simplifications available to EU-based NETPs no longer apply. If you have no UK establishment and you make taxable UK supplies, you register, whatever the amount.
This matters, because whether you are established in the UK changes your VAT position. There is no single statutory definition; it comes from case law. Broadly, you are established where the essential management decisions are made and your central administration is carried out, or where you have a fixed establishment with the human and technical resources to make or receive supplies.
What does not create a UK establishment:
If you are edging towards a real UK presence (say a warehouse plus UK staff), your position can shift, and it is worth a conversation, because it can change both your VAT and your wider UK tax footprint.
Author: Amanda Bowles (VAT).
Reading time: about 4 minutes.
Sources (verified 12 Aug 2026): no threshold for NETPs: VATREG37150, VAT Notice 700/1; meaning of establishment: VATREG37050; Register for VAT.
No. Non-established businesses do not get the UK registration threshold. Registration is triggered by making taxable UK supplies, not by a turnover figure.
It can affect how specific supplies are treated, but it does not give you a threshold. Let us look at your exact sales.
Not by itself. But a warehouse combined with UK staff or premises you control can start to look like an establishment, so it is worth checking.
Yes. The whole relationship can run in German.
Tell us what you sell and how you sell it into the UK, and we will tell you clearly whether you need a UK VAT number. Contact our VAT team.
Senior Manager
VAT
Director
Head of Indirect Tax & HR
