To comply with UK tax requirements, 20% VAT must be added to all seminar participant registrations. Unlike many other B2B transactions, which are generally taxed at the customer’s place of establishment and are handled by the reverse charge mechanism, seminars and conferences are different.

The difference concerns the supply of business to business (B2B) services in respect to admission to cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific, educational, entertainment or similar events, such as fairs and exhibitions, and of ancillary services related to the admission.

According to these articles: “the place of supply of services in respect to admission to cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific, educational, entertainment or similar events, such as fairs and exhibitions, and of ancillary services related to the admission, supplied to a taxable person (and non-taxable person), shall be the place where those events actually take place.”

Registration fees for ECTI seminars in London for both taxable and non-taxable persons, regardless of their nationality, are subject to UK VAT at 20%.