With supplies of metal products and related services (such as cutting, bending, machining, welding, rolling, cleaning, surface treatment and other types of processing) attracting reverse-charge VAT from 1 January 2018, an interpretation recently handed down by the State Revenue Service (SRS) has thrown the metal trade into confusion: reverse-charge VAT applies to those services only if they accompany a supply of metal products. This means that the general VAT scheme applies when accounting for VAT on such services supplied separately. This article explores the issue in detail.