£`1.50 a month for a VAT invoice?

[Duncana]

Apparently the only way to receive a bill without "This is not a VAT invoice" on it and instead, a VAT number, is to shift to paper billing at £1.50 a month. 

Is this correct. It is what Customer Services told me. 

If so, would someone from O2 like to explain why before I throw my toys out of my pram on principle and go elsewhere? 

[Anonymous]

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@EmilieT wrote:

Hi @Duncana! I've checked on my end and it is actually possible to have paperless online VAT invoices. You cannot however activate that yourself, you need to call customer service who will do a security check and help with activating this on your account  

Hope this helps!

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I think that's correct for non-refresh postpay and the airtime plan @EmilieT on refresh ; but  not the device plan invioce on refresh, which is not a vat receipt on paper or electronicaly, and has to be manually requested. See the thread refernence  in my previous post -

Woo cross posting! 

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:

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@Duncana wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I don't have a problem paying for paper bills. My point is, I do not want a paper bill, I want O2 to put a VAT number on my online bill,  

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They used to do that, but no one here knows why they changed.

I guess it would be different if you actually had a business account though......

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I think vat data exchange is going digital on a mandatory basis from 2019 for all buisness turning over more than £85k. So O2 will be transformeing how vat information is transmitted electronically for over 10 line business & enterprise customers and canning it on bills for under 10 line (small) business customers; who will increasingly be treated exactly the same as individual customers, less they opt in and pay for the over 10 line service levels.

I expect in a couple of years 'bills' as we recognize them will be phased out completely.

[EmilieT]

Really good info as well@MI5 and @Anonymous, cheers!

@Duncana can you tell us more about your contract? As you can see above the answer to your question depends on the type of service you're using 

[Duncana]

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@EmilieT wrote:

Hi @Duncana! I've checked on my end and it is actually possible to have paperless online VAT invoices. You cannot however activate that yourself, you need to call customer service who will do a security check and help with activating this on your account  

Hope this helps!

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Thanks Emilie 

Kane in customer services said not. I am on a SIM only, pay monthly tarriff. Is it possble or not? My original post was about trying to get a definitive answer and ensure I was not being fed duff info.

BTW I am not a business customer which is why I do not have a business plan. I simply want a VAT invoice so I can claim my business calls and add-ons when travelling, on expenses.  

[MI5]

According to the info I posted above, yes, it should be possible but we know from others in the past it does depend on who you talk to as to how easy it is to get this sorted.
Keep trying on 202 until you get someone who can.

[pgn]

As an aside, how can O2 claim to be offering paperless billing when you have to get a paper bill if you need VAT Invoices?

And yes, I know the Device Plan is a Credit Agreement, so the VAT component does not apply.

As I have had O2 paperless billing for years, even before Refresh, I have been able to get my Airtime Bill online in MyO2 configured to be a valid VAT Invoice.

It does require persistence on calls to O2 Customer Support.

Good luck, @Duncana. 

[MI5]

I just don't understand why it had to change?
Years ago, everyone had a vat number on their online bills so how difficult would it be to just add the vat number to the bill header or footer?

[EmilieT]

@Duncana I've sent you a PM to get some more details and see if we can get things moving for you 

[jonsie]

I have sim only consumer VAT invoices and this was an automatic change a number of years ago. I see no reason why this can't be automatic for everyone. Poor show O2.

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:
I just don't understand why it had to change?
Years ago, everyone had a vat number on their online bills so how difficult would it be to just add the vat number to the bill header or footer?

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VAT invoices carry a lot more weight legally than non-vat invoices, you can’t reclaim VAT using an invalid invoice, pro-forma invoice, statement, delivery note or simple online non-vat bill. Record keeping rules around them are a lot more stringent and subject to a great deal more audit and inspection by the vat man. (HMRC) 

That's why petrol stations ask if you want a vat receipt, cos requesting one sets up a chain of events that is a lot more costly to manage than not requesting one.

The potential for vat fraud in the global mobile phone market is huge, you have large numbers of small often in high demand, short shelflife, expensive items; flying around the the grey market in vat exempt carousels. Back in the day, when half of craphone's turnover was down to wholesale arbitrage, dawn raids and mass arrests for carousel fraud were not uncommon  So anything the international telcos can do to offset small scale vat fraud down the line, these days, they will. Just to be seen to be playing with a straight bat and also as it saves a huge amount of money.