Recovering VAT on private purchases made in EU

straddevari

Please excuse me if this is posted to the wrong forum; I am new to this.

My question is this: as a private individual (not VAT registered), if I import an article to the UK from an EU country whose VAT rate is higher than the UK's, can I recover the difference in the VAT? (VAT will have been paid in the country of origin at that country's VAT rate.)

If so, can anyone direct me to the documentation for this on the HMRC site, or wherever it can be found?

Many thanks.

shaun_from_Africa

What you want to do isn't possible,


When buying goods in the EU you have to pay the VAT rate in the country that those goods were purchased from.
If you are a VAT registered business then you are entitled to buy goods VAT free from another EU country and when importing those goods into the UK you will get charged VAT at the UK rate but there is no way for private individuals to reclaim the tax for inter EU purchases.


It sometimes works the other way as well.
You can occasionally buy goods from other EU countries and these goods may have a lower VAT rate than the UK but provided the correct tax was paid in the country of purchase, HMRC won't charge you the extra upon import.
This only works for small scale sellers. If the business has a turnover that exceeds certain limits then they charge VAT at the rate of the country of destination.

mgdavid

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

What you want to do isn't possible,
When buying goods in the EU you have to pay the VAT rate in the country that those goods were purchased from.........

Not necessarily; it depends on the specific item, value and country.
For example if a vehicle is purchased in Belgium for immediate personal import into UK, no VAT is paid in Belgium. UK VAT is paid after the vehicle arrives here. The individual does not need to be VAT-registered.