tax-law european-union online
Can UK stores charge VAT for goods sold to customers outside the EU?
<p>I just came across a <code>.co.uk</code> online store delivering goods all over the world. Even though I specify both billing and shipping address outside the EU (New Zealand), the site keeps applying 20% tax.</p>

<p>My current plan is to contact the store and see if they would stop applying tax <em>before</em> I place order, but I was wondering:</p>

<ol>
<li>Is it illegal for EU online stores to charge VAT for sales to customers outside the EU? If so, is there a regulator that an effective complaint could be filed with?</li>
<li>If I go ahead placing order and get charged VAT, would there be a way to get it back, and how?</li>
</ol>

<p>VAT is not due on goods shipped to a customer outside the EU, but there is nothing to stop a supplier from charging an 20% extra on exports. It doesn't sound like good business practice, but a small business making few exports outside the EU might think that the administrative burdens of handling the export exemption (including programming the website properly) were too much. </p>

<p>You can ask the supplier not to charge you VAT on the basis that it is a genuine export. If the supplier normally only ships goods to UK and other EU addresses (for which the rules are different), they might not have thought about true exports. However, beyond that your only real recourse would be to find a cheaper supplier. </p>

<p>If the supplier collected the 20% as VAT and paid it to HMRC (the UK tax authority), and later tried to reclaim it as VAT incorrectly collected, HMRC might to refuse the refund on the basis of unjust enrichment since you had already paid, but HMRC wouldn't be able to force the supplier to refund the 20% to you.</p>
