Refund of VAT charged before the withdrawal date in the United Kingdom or in an EU-27 Member State to taxable persons not established in the State of refund but established respectively either in an EU-27 Member State or in the United Kingdom…
Minutes of VAT Committee of 12 March 2019
References: Directives 86/560/EEC, 2006/112/EC and 2008/9/EC
Subject: Refund of VAT charged before the withdrawal date in the United Kingdom or in an EU-27 Member State to taxable persons not established in the State of refund but established respectively either in an EU-27 Member State or in the United Kingdom
Regarding VAT charged before the withdrawal date in the United Kingdom or in an EU-27 Member State to taxable persons not established in the State of refund but established respectively either in an EU-27 Member State or in the United Kingdom, the VAT Committee almost unanimously confirms the following:
(1) As from the withdrawal date, Directive 2008/9/EC no longer applies for the United Kingdom, this entailing, inter alia, that a taxable person established in one of the EU-27 Member States or in the United Kingdom shall not be able as from the withdrawal date to use the electronic portal set up by his State of establishment for submitting an electronic refund application in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2008/9/EC.
(2) As from the withdrawal date the exchange of information between tax authorities relating to VAT refund applications provided for in Article 48(2) and (3) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 no longer applies in relation to the United Kingdom and any request for information by the State of refund with regard to a VAT refund application shall therefore be addressed directly to the taxable person concerned.
(3) Those taxable persons who have not submitted a refund application before the withdrawal date, or in respect of which the refund application has not yet been forwarded by their State of establishment to the State of refund by that date, must submit their refund application directly to the State of refund. For the EU-27 Member States, this shall be according to the procedure by which Directive 86/560/EEC has been implemented.
(4) The provisions on reciprocity (Article 2(2) of Directive 86/560/EEC), on the appointment of a tax representative (Article 2(3) of Directive 86/560/EEC) and on the exclusion of certain expenditure or possible additional conditions (Article 4(2) of Directive 86/560/EEC) shall not be applicable in respect of VAT charged before the withdrawal date. However, in accordance with Article 273 of Directive 2006/112/EC, Member States may require the applicant to provide evidence of his status as taxable person or the original or copy of the invoices.
Although, as from the withdrawal date, Directive 2008/9/EC ceases to apply for the United Kingdom, the VAT Committee almost unanimously acknowledges that in regard to VAT charged to a taxable person before the withdrawal date the rights and corresponding obligations of taxable persons derived from that Directive shall continue to apply, encompassing notably the right to a refund of VAT, the time limits to submit a refund application, the information to be provided, the time limits to be notified or to be requested to provide additional information, the time limits to provide the requested additional or further additional information, the time limits to be refunded and the right to receive interest in case of late payment. Further, the VAT Committee almost unanimously agrees that refund applications relating to VAT charged from 1 January 2019 until and including the day before the withdrawal date shall be treated as relating to the remainder of a calendar year.
