Reclaim VAT on import - C79 certificate
Hey everyone,
Quick question here. Our company (based in France) is importing goods to the UK. Like for any import, we pay in advance VAT to the custom border & receive in return a C79 certificate proving we made the payment.
I understand that VAT can be reclaimed by filling an “import” in the additional VAT report available in seller central. Currently, my local tax agent in the UK is Avalara (I got them through Amazon VAT services partnership as they took care of registering my VAT number in the UK).
Do you know how things work with Avalara next? I assume that Avalara will submit the VAT reclaim to HMRC based on the additional tax report? If so, how will the rest of the communication be ensured with Avalara and where will I be able to see the tax credit or refund obtained? (similarly, if some proofs / documents are required in the process, how will Avalara get in touch on that occasion?)
Thanks a lot
3 replies
Seller_sHLFew45Vk1DE
Hello,
We have the same problem here. Do you have resolved ?
We have paid DDP VAT trough our shipping company TNT (fedex) and now receive Form c97 and now need to Reclaim VAT paid in advance at the import.
How can we do that ? Also we have enroled in Amazon VAT service and our UK accountants are Avalara.
Thank you
Seller_Ho876pPx0Ncwb
Hi there,
Still trying to figure out how to deal with that problem actually. At that point I see 2 options:
Option 1 (the easiest): Stop deadling with C79 / C97 / Duty VAT payments and just go with Amazon European Fullfilment Network (that has been reopened for EU to UK export recently). Overall, that is going to be much easier in terms of logistic & administration, and the overall cost will be very similar.
However, Option 1 requires having products eligible to EFN (not my case for instance, hence option 2).
Option 2: Get rid of the regular Amazon VAT services combined with Avalara and get your own accountant. I had a thorough chat with Avalara and they clearly explained 2 things:
A) They can’t provide any basic service such as letting you accessing to your HMRC account to check your VAT credit / check that VAT reclaims were properly submitted. Also, they can’t help you contacting HMRC to deal with matters such as having VAT credit paid directly on your bank account instead of keeping a active credit (in order to improve your cash management). Finally, they can’t help you dealing with carrier VAT payment at the custom border to optimize it.
B) However, they can provide tax resolution service which basically consists in helping you declaring C79 / C97 for a fee that is about £200 (per certificate) for simple cases and much higher for more complex cases, which is obviously ridiculous.
So overall, they’ll do nothing to help and keep you in the dark. By the way, this level of service appears to be extremely low compared to what a regular accountant can do.
Therefore, Option2 clearly implies getting rid of Avalara and getting my own accountant with my own HMRC account to report VAT the way I want and have someone dealing with HMRC to make sure I get the VAT reclaim directly on my account. I’m not there yet, but based on my first investigations, it seems that this solution will not cost much more compared to the current Avalara fee applied through Amazon VAT services.
Bottomline: Avalara is great when it comes to setting up local VAT numbers (even more true as they do that during the “12 month free period” at no cost). But when it comes to dealing with regular VAT operations and being supportive on specific business matters, they totally suck and deserve to be replaced by a different tax agent.
