That doc is dated 2003 so I guess the regs have changed (and there have been some pretty major changes recently like CA2006 and FA2011). I certainly don't get VAT invoices from the US suppliers I use (linode and digital ocean for example).

Edit: The 4th paragraph here seems to settle it: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/vatpossmanual/vatposs14300.ht...

The reverse charge mechanism places the burden for accounting for VAT on the recipient if the supplier is outside the UK.

I have a more up-to date reference

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/when-to-register.h...

I do get them from pingdom, and AWS. I do not get them from Mailchimp or hostgator.

It may also matter that the service being provided by Digital Ocean is in the UK as well, although I haven't had a chance to read all this yet.

Could be because Pingdom is a Swedish company and AWS is Amazon, which has a presence in Europe?