Revenue & Customs Brief 21 (2020): 'Withdrawal of the VAT Retail Export Scheme and the tax-free shopping concession' confirms the withdrawal of 'airside' tax-free shopping and the Retail Export Scheme on 1 January 2021.
Tax-free shopping
- Extra statutory concession 9.1, published in VAT Notice 48, allows retailers of goods sold in ports and airports to zero-rate sales to passengers departing for non-EU destinations by treating the retailer as exporting the goods.
- This concession will be withdrawn from 1 January 2021.
VAT Retail Export Scheme (RES)
- The VAT RES allows non-EU visitors to the EU to recover VAT on high-street purchases which leave the EU.
- This Scheme will be withdrawn in Great Britain.
- Purchases made in Great Britain using VAT RES on or before 31 December 2020 remain eligible for refund where visitors leave the UK after 31 December 2020.
- Under the Nothern Ireland Protocol, retailers in Nothern Ireland (including those at ports and airports) will continue to be able to offer the VAT RES to non-EU visitors to Nothern Ireland.
- Special rules apply where goods are purchased in Northern Ireland on or after 1 January 2021 that are taken to Great Britain.
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