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HMRC has announced a 6-month extension to the new filing deadline to allow other Member States to catch up.

Before 2010, businesses were only able to reclaim VAT incurred in other Member States by writing directly to that other Member State, which could be very time-consuming. Since the beginning of this year - as part of a number of changes to VAT in 2010 - a business can now approach its own domestic tax authority for a refund of overseas VAT. This was a significant change applied across the EC and, whilst here in the UK HMRC was relatively prompt at setting up the new service, other Member States' authorities have fallen behind.

There will therefore be a 6 month extension to the original 9 month deadline, (which expired on 30 September), so that businesses across Europe now have 'til 31 March 2011 to claim the overseas VAT they incurred in the calendar year ended 31 December 2009.

This means that all businesses - including those in the UK - will have more time to reclaim 'foreign' VAT.

See Extension of Deadline for the Submission of EU VAT Refund Claims