Exported goods to British Army

[towat]

My client is sending some goods to a British Army base in Germany, the customer is adament that he should not be charged VAT "cos he never has been before", obviously the Army have no VAT number nor can they provide proof of export.

Are there some special provisions for supplying forces overseas that means he doesn't have to charge VAT?

[Kitty Kat]

My client is sending some goods to a British Army base in Germany, the customer is adament that he should not be charged VAT "cos he never has been before", obviously the Army have no VAT number nor can they provide proof of export.

Are there some special provisions for supplying forces overseas that means he doesn't have to charge VAT?

Not that I will be able to answer it still, but are these goods military goods (is he sending them jeeps, guns and boots) or is he sending gifts?

Are military bases their own country like embassies? So if it is a British base... but then there would still be VAT even if it were treated as UK to UK...

Ok, I'm intrigued!

[spidersong]

There are various reliefs for visiting military forces available. For instance with the necesary 'priv card', as it's called, supplies of goods and services to US forces personel can be zero rated in the UK. Supplies to visiting NATO forces can in certain circumstances be relieved, however this is normally by a claim made by the force to the national government of the country/state they're 'visiting'. Likewise supplies to the NATO International Military Headquarters based at Northwood and High Wycombe can have VAT recovered on them by the HQ.

There is some relief available for British forces stationed or to be stationed abroad, for instance supplies to a regimental shop of a regiment about to be stationed outside the EC can be treated as a zero rated export, and of course supplies to non-EC BFPO addresses can be exports.

Now the fun part; supplies to British Forces in Cyprus can be zero rated, as can supplies to visiting NATO forces stationed in Germany (they don't like to make it easy those Germans). Now the UK is a NATO member state, and we're not Germany, so we would be a visiting NATO force when stationed in Germany, and there are various hoops to jump through to get the zero rating;
You need a certificate claiming entitlement under Article 15(10) of EC Council Directive 77/388/EEC
The goods must be for official and not personal use
You or your forwarder must remove the goods to the visiting forces official address i.e. they can't pick them up
You have to keep evidence of the removal (proof of posting, waybills, etc.)
The order must have been placed through an official procurement agency like the NAAFI or by the regimental procurement officer.

The rules and the fact they're available are actually fairly obscure and could take some tracking down if you don't already know where to look so I'm not surprised that few people are aware of them. Further details can be found in HMRC Notice 725 Section 14 "supplies to privileged persons in other EC member states" http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000152&propertyType=document and details on the general rules around visiting forces in the UK are found in the Visiting Forces notice, notice 431: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000252&propertyType=document#P166_19418

[towat]

Thanks Spidey that's pretty much what I have been told by HMRC helpline only a lot clearer.

Now where can I get a Jiffy bag big enough to hold a chieftan tank?