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Hauliers' pockets hit by ongoing VAT refund debacle
chris.tiridattfarhi.co.uk AN EXTENSION granted to countries to handle outstanding VAT refund applications will not solve the tax black hole UK operators are facing, warns the Road Haulage Association (RHA).
The Et: council of ministers has agreed to a six-month emergency deadline extension after a growing alarm that firms were being forced out of business because huge sums of money were not being paid when the system went online in January.
Without the extension. claims processed after 30 September would have been classed as not le gitimate and been declined. Computer glitches across EU member states means that international haulage companies are still waiting for foreign toll and fuel VAT payments stretching back to 2009.
The extension gives countries such as Holland. Belgium and Luxembourg more time to deal with claims and fix the problems This would include claims that have been sitting in foreign systems since the claims process changed. But Peter Cullum, RHA international affairs manager. says: -It's based on an assumption that by then their IT systems are up to scratch.Will they extend it again? It becomes a problem if they do. You have got the current year's claims coming in now as well. It has been a very badly managed project."
Peter Harding Freight International says it is owed thousands of pounds from Belgium, but boss Peter Harding says he has only just received payment for the first quarter of 2010.
"Before I would have received that within six weeks," he says "We had no say in the change, but the EU agreed this was the way forward without even testing it or having anything in place for emergency payments" This year J Adams & Son (Warehousing) (CM 16 September) and Time Critical International (CM 19 August) have blamed their closures on the VAT debacle.