Reclaiming foreign vat is not a problem, generally, it seems that most companies either don’t think it is worth while or don’t know that they can. It has been estimated that around 80% of foreign VAT remains unclaimed. that is a huge amount going to revenue services throughout the European Union that should not.

Does your company ever attend or exhibit at trade shows? As we all know these can be expensive events thought they are mostly worth while in two regards: knowing what is happening within ones own industry, and gaining more clients who attend the shows.

The cost of stands at shows carry VAT, this VAT can be reclaimed. Why most of this VAT is not reclaimed remains a mystery, but a couple of guesses may throw some light on the issue.

Many companies and exhibitors are just not aware that they can. Many provide their VAT number before the show for invoicing purposes but the invoice still shows the VAT. One of the problems here is that it is the marketing arm of many companies that pays for and arranges these shows, marketing or sales are not as aware of VAT issues as the accounting departments.

The second and often cited problem is the paper work involved in reclaiming VAT, and yes it is sometimes onerous. Many companies now solve this burden by out-sourcing the VAT reclamation process to companies who specialize in that area.

For more information on reclaiming VAT see our main website.