Recovering foreign VAT — is this a do-it-yourself job?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: eligibility depends on reciprocity, the nature of the expense and whether the claimant makes taxable supplies locally.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
Can we reclaim the VAT our business paid at an overseas trade show?
Often yes, through a refund scheme for businesses that are not registered in that country. Whether a particular cost qualifies is a separate question from whether your business does. Exhibition space and stand costs are commonly recoverable. Hospitality, entertainment and some travel are commonly blocked, and the blocked list differs from country to country. Two practical constraints decide most claims. The first is evidence: schemes generally want the supplier's original invoice, made out correctly to your business, with its own tax details on it. The second is the deadline, which is set by the refund country and is not forgiving.
How long do we have to claim VAT paid in another country?
Each country sets its own claim window, and there is no common rule you can apply across a group of them. The windows are usually fixed to a period rather than to when you noticed the cost, and they close whether or not the claim is ready. That makes the practical sequence the opposite of what most businesses do. Establish the deadline for each country you spent money in first, then work backwards to the invoices you need to gather and the corrections you need to request. Invoice corrections are what take the time, because they depend on a supplier who has no stake in your refund.
Do we need the original invoices to reclaim foreign VAT?
Assume yes until you have checked the particular country, and build the file on that basis. Refund schemes are administered by authorities that cannot audit you locally, so the documentation rules carry the weight an audit would otherwise carry. The invoice generally has to be the supplier's own, made out to the claiming business rather than to an employee, and it has to show the tax separately. A card receipt, a booking confirmation or a statement line is usually not enough. Where an invoice is wrong, the correction has to come from the supplier, which is why the gathering starts well before the deadline.
We have no entity in that country, can we still claim?
That is precisely who the refund schemes are for. They exist because a business with no local registration has no return on which to deduct the tax it paid. Eligibility usually turns on three things: that your business does not make taxable supplies in that country, that it is established and registered for a comparable tax at home, and that the refund country extends its scheme to businesses from yours. That last point is reciprocity, and it is the one that surprises people, because a refund available to a neighbouring country may not be available to you for reasons that have nothing to do with your expense.
Why was our foreign VAT refund claim rejected?
The common reasons are dull and mostly fixable. The invoice was addressed to an employee rather than to the business. The tax was not shown separately. The expense fell in a category that country blocks. The claim arrived after its window had closed. Or the authority asked a question and the reply went to an address nobody monitors. A rejection is not always final: some can be resubmitted within the original window, and some carry an appeal route with its own short deadline. The first step is to read the decision and establish which of those it is, because the remedy and the timetable differ completely.
Should we register for VAT there instead of claiming a refund?
It depends on whether you are making taxable supplies in that country, and that is a question about what you are doing there rather than about which route is more convenient. If you are, registration is usually not optional and the refund scheme is generally closed to you, with the tax recovered on a local return instead. If you are not, registering in order to recover tax can create obligations that outlast the recovery. Businesses holding stock in a country, importing in their own name, or selling to consumers there often cross the line without noticing. Establish which side you are on before choosing a route.
What is double taxation?
Double taxation means the same income being taxed by two authorities. It comes in two forms: juridical, where two countries each tax one person on one amount, and economic, where two different people are taxed on the same underlying profit — a company on its earnings and a shareholder on the dividend paid out of them. Relief comes from a treaty, a foreign tax credit, or an exemption, and which one applies depends on the income type. How to avoid double taxation sets out the routes.
What is cross-border tax?
Cross-border tax is what applies when income, assets or people touch more than one tax system at once — someone living in one country and earning in another, a company selling or hiring abroad, a family holding property in a second country. The work is rarely one country's rules applied harder; it is reconciling two sets of rules and claiming the relief that stops the same income being taxed twice at full rates. See what we do.
