Deadline for UK VAT Refund Applications

Under the normal EU refund process, EU businesses that are not registered or registrable in the UK for VAT but have incurred UK VAT can submit a claim to recover that VAT, subject to

certain conditions. Those claims would normally need to be submitted through the portal of the applicants’ country before the end of September of the calendar year following the refund year; that is, under normal circumstances, the deadline for businesses to submit their 2020 UK VAT refund claims should be 30 September 2021.

However, due to the end of the Brexit transition period, as of 1 April 2021, access to the EU refund process will be limited to EU VAT. Consequently, EU businesses wishing to claim UK VAT incurred between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020 must submit their claims through the portal of their home territory by 31 March 2021.

UK VAT Refunds for 2021 and Beyond

Where EU businesses incur UK VAT as of 1 January 2021, the UK is continuing with the refund scheme used for non-EU businesses (commonly referred to as 13th Directive refund claims), but this will be extended to EU businesses. Therefore, EU businesses will be able to continue to reclaim UK VAT, even where they are not registered for VAT in the UK. However, please note the different refund years and claim deadlines for this scheme. The claim year runs

from 1 July to 30 June and refund claims must be made by 31 December. Claims are made using the manual completion of VAT form 65A and there is no current option to submit the claim electronically.

Read the WTS Global VAT Newsletter here