reclaiming VAT when leaving the EU

zeikin

Please forgive me if this is off-topic - I have a question about reclaiming VAT if you are a non-EU citizen visiting the UK.

As I understand it, the basic procedure is that you pay the VAT in the shop as normal, then when you are leaving the UK you get a stamp from customs at the airport, and send that to the retailer to get a refund of your tax.
See "Tax-free_shopping" on Wikipedia and
HMRC Reference:Notice 704/1 (September 2004)

It appears that there are companies that specialise in providing processing services to retailers to deal with these VAT reclaims. Unsurprisingly, these companies take a cut of the VAT refund. In my particular case (Premier Tax Free (UK) Ltd) the VAT is £12.65 and the charge for processing is £6.85 i.e. they are taking over 50% of the VAT.

Is there any way to force the retailer (or HMRC) to pay back all your VAT directly, bypassing the tax processing company?

than4

My Mum did it at Heathrow and honestly, if she can do it, anyone can.

She had three receipts for a number of items.

I beleive she went through security and then got the good checked and the receipts stamped by customs (I think there might also be a customs desk before security) then went over to Travelex which processed the refund. She said they wanted to charge £2-£3 per receipt to give it to her in cash, so she just got it refunded onto her credit card.

phatbear

zeikin wrote: »

Please forgive me if this is off-topic - I have a question about reclaiming VAT if you are a non-EU citizen visiting the UK.

As I understand it, the basic procedure is that you pay the VAT in the shop as normal, then when you are leaving the UK you get a stamp from customs at the airport, and send that to the retailer to get a refund of your tax.
See "Tax-free_shopping" on Wikipedia and
HMRC Reference:Notice 704/1 (September 2004)

It appears that there are companies that specialise in providing processing services to retailers to deal with these VAT reclaims. Unsurprisingly, these companies take a cut of the VAT refund. In my particular case (Premier Tax Free (UK) Ltd) the VAT is £12.65 and the charge for processing is £6.85 i.e. they are taking over 50% of the VAT.

Is there any way to force the retailer (or HMRC) to pay back all your VAT directly, bypassing the tax processing company?

The process is this.

Any non eu citizen can claim back the VAT on goods which they have purchase in any EU state which are then exported from the EU no more than 3 months after the date of issue.

However there are some conditions, the vat reclaim is on goods only and not services, ie you cant reclaim the VAT on hotel bills/food etc.

Regarding your statement that premier are taking a cut of the money this is the 1st ive heard of this however I know the retailers normally charge an admin fee for processing the forms in the shop for you, if you dont like this charge well im sorry to say theres nowt you can do about it.

Another issue is not all companies are part of the scheme, therefore if a shop doesnt give you a vat reclaim form on request, not just a rcpt, you cant claim your money back.

JasonLVC

The actual (legislative) procedure is to present your receipt at the special booth when you leave the country (at the airport usually), complete a simple form and HRMC will stamp the receipt/form before you get onto the plane.

You then send the stamped form and original receipt/invoice back to the shop who are then able to issue you a refund for the VAT amount. if you bought the goods at the airport, you should normally be able to go straight back and get the refund straight away. if you bought outside of the airport, the postal service is your only friend.

The stamped document is the shops proof to issue the refund to you, otherwise if they paid you the VAT back without the documents, they'd still have to pay HMRC the VAT - so why should they lose out?.

The alternative is to use a processing company to do all this for you, but as you say, they make a charge - and why not, it takes someone time to read and check documents, authorise them and then post them on.

I think for £12.65 it really isn't worth anyone's effort to make the reclaim....which of course is what HMRC want you to do as it is less money going out of the country.

Seriously, I wouldn't sweat it for £12.65 - just consider that you have helped the UK during this difficult time, contributed to our NHS and our wonderful roads.;)