Does your organisation frequently attend international conferences, events, or meetings? What about incentive trips abroad or the additional accounts payable from international suppliers? Hold on to your invoices, they may be your golden ticket to recovering foreign VAT. Businesses already incurring these types of international expenses can explore how our reclaim solutions support this process.
Right off the gate, if you’re wondering whether you can claim the VAT portion on international expenses, the answer is a resounding yes! However, to successfully claim foreign VAT, there are a few critical things to keep in mind. If your organisation would like support navigating this process, you can contact us.
Foreign VAT, or international VAT, is a common value-added tax charged to most goods and services. Some countries also call it goods and services tax (GST). It’s added at a country-specific rate and varies depending on the industry, goods and services, and VAT classification.
Suppose a business has international expenses on anything from work-related international travel to foreign supplier spend or global marketing and media campaigns, there may be a portion of VAT recoverable.
These claims can’t be submitted as input VAT returns, so how do you recover the VAT? The foreign VAT recovery scheme enables businesses to reclaim the VAT portion of international business spend without needing to be VAT-registered in the country where the costs were incurred. To do so successfully, companies must comply with the VAT rules, regulations, and processes set by foreign tax authorities across the globe.
Although the foreign recovery process hinges on many country-specific variables, there are a few overarching rules in terms of invoicing to ensure accurate and compliant foreign supplier invoices. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that each foreign legislation may have its own relevant deadlines, invoices, and eligible expenses, which is why it’s best recommended to have experts in your corner to help you optimise and maximise the recovery process without risking any non-compliance.
In the meantime, a few general guidelines regarding foreign invoices include the following:
The VAT reclaim potential differs depending on each industry and the country from which you’re reclaiming.
Common foreign VAT reclaimable expenses include:
Manage and maximise your foreign VAT reclaim process with one centralised solution for all your industry-specific VAT needs. With our VAT IT tech and our industry experts in foreign legislation, we assess and review all invoices to check their reclaim potential.
International refunds shouldn’t feel foreign. Reclaim your VAT on auto-pilot while complying with international VAT legislation, deadlines, and instructions.
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This webinar explains how US businesses can identify and recover foreign VAT, breaking down key concepts like reciprocity and showing where refund opportunities are often missed.
