UK businesses involved in cross-border services in Europe should be reviewing how recent changes to the VAT system affect them, lawyers have warned. The new rules for how VAT should be accounted for on the provision of services across the EU, which came into effect on 1 January, dubbed the VAT Package, is a combination of the 'good, the bad, and the let's wait and see', according to Richard Woolich, a partner at DLA Piper. He said that 'the good' is the fact that many business-to-business services are now taxed where the customer is based under the reverse charge, or tax shift, eliminating the need to have foreign registrations and eliminating the need to pay and reclaim foreign VAT in some cases. 'The bad' is the fact that certain UK businesses such as charities, universities, banks and insurance companies, which buy in outsourced services from outside the UK, will have an increased VAT cost and may have to register for VAT for the first time. All businesses making cross-border services also have increased administrative burdens. The 'let's wait and see' is the fact that confusion and complication will only be averted if member states apply and interpret the rules in a consistent way, such as which establishment should be treated as making or receiving given services, he commented.