Tax Free Sales to BFPO Addresses - Who & How?

helliecopter_2

Thought it would be a good idea to set up a new thread to list which companies will refund your tax and people's experiences etc using them. I've ordered from the below over the last few months :

Amazon - will ship upto 30kgs as part of their £15 free p&p offer, but check before you order on larger items. Delivery is normally quick. Easy to claim tax back, just send a quick e-mail to customer service explaining how you're entitled and the refund will be made. Always remember to watch for next 30 days to see if price drop and then contact customer service and they'll refund the difference too!;)

M&M Sports - My DH orders a lot of bits from them, but the delivery is slow. With regards to claiming the tax back - they requested a letter from your CO, with your unit stamp explaining how you're entitled. Once they've received it they update your file accordingly and you don't need to do it every time you order.

I have bought bits & bobs from others, but will update when I get another couple of minutes. Hope people want to share the knowledge!

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johng_uk

Cheers for the info.

Any trouble with ordering at BFPO addresses tends to be less from the retailers and more the guys sorting the mail in theatre!!

Or the Royal Mail going on strike just before Christmas and causing a massive backlog and making us miss our Xmas mail:)

Bigun28

Here is the site with all of the details:

http://www.bfpo.mod.uk/

and here are the companies that will deal and deliver to BFPO addresses:

http://www.bfpo.mod.uk/deliveries_via_bfpo.htm

In my experiance there are many more that are not on these lists and it is often worth asking. Having just returned from the Falklands I found that many companies just wanted an official letter (normally signed off by an officer or Admin to cover there tax exempt authority) saying that you were serving outside the EU and hence UK VAT exempt. Proof of entitlement was also that the delivery address was outside of the EU.

One of the problems I had was that some companies did not know how the BFPO system works, in that you pay UK postal charges for the item to be delivered to Northholt (used to be Mill Hill) under the UK Royal Mail system, after which it would enter the BFPO system to be delivered to theatre. Some companies tried to charge me the full delivery costs to the Falklands and I had the argue the issue saying that if it was lost in the post because it only had UK postage on it instead of the full to Falklands cost, I would take the risk.

johng_uk

I had problems in Iraq getting stuff delivered from Amazon tbh. They didn't recognise BFPO 41 until I pointed out to them where it was!

Trying_to_be_good

Excuse the ignorance - why is there an entitlement to tax back? Are you not treated as UK people as you're at BFPO addresses?

bargainboy

Trying_to_be_good wrote: »

Excuse the ignorance - why is there an entitlement to tax back? Are you not treated as UK people as you're at BFPO addresses?

this is true but we are not living in UK therefor don't pay tax quite strange as we live wherever and dont have to pay tax where we live either. i'm not complaining though if i do the lottery online and win i wont get the winnings because i am not a UK resident.

martinbuckley

Trying_to_be_good wrote: »

Excuse the ignorance - why is there an entitlement to tax back? Are you not treated as UK people as you're at BFPO addresses?

One of the few perks of the job...

...Oh, and being shot at of course:eek:

Cat695

martinbuckley wrote: »

One of the few perks of the job...

...Oh, and being shot at of course:eek:

I think we need to point out we just don't pay tax on something we buy when we're posted overseas (or should i say we can claim the tax back)....however we still pay tax on earnings even though our civvie counterparts don't!! we even still pay council tax when based overseas!!! which is just a joke if you ask me(even though i don't own a house in the uk)

zappahey

Cat695 wrote: »

..however we still pay tax on earnings even though our civvie counterparts don't!!

Depends what you mean by your civvie counterparts. Civil servants pay tax when they're overseas.

guss_2

you are confusing vat and income tax . Servicemen pay uk income tax and nat ins ,whether they are posted to london or kabul or anywhere else on the planet.Whilst serving overseas some items can have vat reclaimed at 17.5 % but only some things, Strangely i think civil servants overseas have the same priviedges !:beer:

FNUSNU

Don't forget forcesdiscounts-mod.co.uk and on armynet go to 'resources' - 'gear' - 'discounts', including a very attractive offer from Panasonic (fantastic company! thanks guys).