VAT from Belgium/EU

HI, i'm an sales agent and for a distributor in Belgium . all our customers pay pro-forma and are invoiced from Belgium with the Belgium VAT (TVA) added to the invlice. do our customers use the C79 form to reclaim the VAT?

You do not say where the customer is located. A C79 is not a reclaim form it is evidence of payment of UK import VAT. Only the party who is named as a UK importer will receive a C79.importers use the C79 to report the input VAT on their UK VAT return . You cannot reclaim Belgian VAT in the UK . You would need to speak to the Belgian authorities. If the goods are being exported to the UK from Belgium then usually Belgian VAT would be zero rated for export. Again you would need to check with the Belgian authorities. Pro forma invoices are not considered valid VAT invoices.

Customers are UK based. Once the pro-forma is paid an Invoice is produced. The goods are sent to them direct from Belgium.

Only if If your customers are businesses who are UK VAT registered , declared as the importer and pay UK import VAT would they get a C79. You need to look at why a Belgian supplier is charging Belgian VAT for goods being exported to a UK customer in the first place. There may be a good reason such as the supplier can’t get proof of export .

Hi,

Businesses can only claim import VAT as input tax if the business is the importer of record and received a C79 as evidence to claim this back. A UK business cannot claim back Belgian VAT with a C79.

If the Belgian VAT has been correctly charged then there would be a procedure to claim this VAT back from the EU member state.

Please see the guidance below:

How to claim a refund of VAT paid in an EU member state

Thank you.