VAT refund process

If you are not established in France and do not carry out any VAT liable activities at the time you incur VAT taxable business expenses, you can apply for VAT refund on those expenses.

As an example, in France, you are allowed to claim a refund on VAT paid on exhibition and advertising expenses, conferences, training fees, telephone bills, gas oil (for professional use). Since the standard rate of 19.6% applies to those expenses, VAT refund can bring substancial saving !

There are 2 cases depending on whether you are or you are not a company established in the European Union.

VAT refund in Poland

Through our branch ITS POLSKA, the its group is able to recover your VAT in Poland. Any VAT interest in Poland, contact us...

Case 1: your company is registered in the European Union
You can ask for VAT refund yourself, but our clients prefer to go through its for convenience, speed and language reasons as well as tax assistance in case of complications.

Case 2: your company is NOT registered in the European Union
A fiscal agent is compulsory and its handles all the administrative work so that you get your VAT refunded minus our success fee.

When to apply

Your application must be submitted no later than 6 months after the end of the year in which the VAT is charged. For example invoices dated in 2004 must be processed before June 2005.

How to apply

STEP 1 - collect the following documents :

· Original invoices (copies are not accepted). Your original invoices will be returned to you together with the payment. All invoices must be addressed to your company and show following details
   - date,
   - description of services,
   - V.A.T. rate applied,
   - net amount,
   - V.A.T. amount,
   - total amount V.A.T. included,
   - possibly a proof of total payment of the invoice (sometimes requested by the tax
   office)
Special instructions must be followed in cases of diesel and hostel invoices, feel free to contact us.

· VAT registration certificate for companies based in another EU country, or a certificate of taxable activity for companies applying from non-EU countries. This document is issued by the tax authorities of your country. Warning: to be valid it should not be older than a year.

· Power of attorney allowing its to claim the reimbursement on your behalf. You can download the standard form here, print it, fill it out and have it signed by a company officer

STEP 2 - mail them over to :

INTER TRADE SERVICE
Attn: V. de La Fonchais
116, ave Gal Leclerc
75014 PARIS
FRANCE

STEP 3 - its gets in touch with the tax office. The tax office answer and payment last somewhere between 1 and 3 months.

NOTE: since January 1, 2004, companies based outside the EU no longer have to provide evidence of their business activity in France (copies of letters mailed to potential customers, press communiqués, etc...). This procedure applied to invoices dated prior to January 1, 2004 (NEWS).

Conditions for an efficient refund

The processing of VAT refund application by the tax office is subject to a certain formalism.

Therefore, we encourage you to verify with us, prior to starting the procedure, if the tax situation of your company and the nature of your expenses affected by VAT, give your application good chances of success.

At its, we are interested in dealing with those issues early enough simply because our compensation is entirely based on a success fee. This preliminary communication is a key for success in neutralizing the effects of VAT on your business.