If an overseas company in your group tried to reclaim UK VAT at any point since January 2021 and HMRC sent the claim straight back, you may be owed money the business wrote off years ago. HMRC has just admitted the rule that blocked those claims was never meant to exist, and it has opened a window to put them right.
TL;DR: Revenue and Customs Brief 8 (2026), published 8 September 2026, changes who claims UK VAT refunds inside a VAT group. From 1 July 2026 each non-UK group member claims in its own name. Claims HMRC refused since January 2021 can be reconsidered, but only until 31 August 2027.
What Changed on 8 September 2026?
From 1 July 2026, a non-UK business that belongs to a UK VAT group must submit its own claim for the UK VAT it incurred. HMRC will no longer accept a claim made by the group's representative member unless that member actually paid the VAT (GOV.UK, 2026).
That reverses five and a half years of practice. Before 1 January 2021, an EU-established member of a UK VAT group could in some circumstances claim in its own name. After the UK left the EU, every non-UK member had to route claims through the representative member instead.
HMRC now describes that position as an unintended consequence of EU exit. The practical effect was that claims which should have been paid were refused on a technicality about whose name was on the form.
Who Does This Actually Affect?
HMRC addresses the brief to non-UK members of a UK VAT group that want to reclaim UK VAT, and to the agents who file for them. The VAT in question is what the overseas member itself paid, not what the representative member paid.
Before assuming a claim exists, check the conditions. HMRC states the business must not be registered for UK VAT, must not be liable or eligible to register, must not have a business establishment or other fixed establishment in the UK, and must not make UK supplies beyond certain transport services or supplies where the customer accounts for the VAT (GOV.UK, 2026). VAT Notice 723A adds that the claimant's own country must give UK businesses similar relief, a test the UAE meets through its Business Visitor Refund Scheme (Federal Tax Authority, 2026).
Set against the grouping rules, the position gets fact-specific, because an overseas entity generally joins a UK VAT group through a UK fixed establishment. Whether a member both sits in the group and qualifies for the scheme turns on which establishment incurred the VAT. What we see most often is a group that assumed the UK arm could sweep everything up on one return, and never tested the question.
Can You Reopen a Claim HMRC Already Rejected?
Yes, if HMRC refused the claim purely because the representative member did not submit it, and the VAT was not later picked up in a claim the representative member did make. HMRC will look again at anything from 1 January 2021 onwards. The route is an email to the Overseas Repayments Unit at newcastle.oru@hmrc.gov.uk with the subject line "Reconsideration of a previously refused VAT group claim".
HMRC wants specific detail in that email:
- The business name and the reference number on the original claim
- The claim period and the value claimed
- The date of the decision letter that refused it
- The names of every member of the VAT group
- Confirmation that the VAT was not reclaimed in a later claim
The deadline is 31 August 2027, and HMRC has set it as a hard cut-off rather than a target (RossMartin, 2026). Claims older than that stay refused.
What Is the Deadline for This Year's Claim?
31 December 2026, for VAT incurred in the 2025 to 2026 prescribed year. The prescribed year runs from 1 July to 30 June, and claims have to reach HMRC within six months of the year end, so the year that closed on 30 June 2026 has to be claimed by the end of December.
HMRC is treating that year as transitional. For VAT incurred between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, it will accept a claim from either the individual group member or the representative member. Either route is safe for this one year.
From the 2026 to 2027 prescribed year onwards the transitional easement disappears. Only the member that incurred the VAT can claim it, and a claim filed in the wrong name is a refused claim.
How the UK VAT Refund Scheme Works for Overseas Businesses
Claims go in on form VAT65A, which must be completed electronically; the schedule at question 9 cannot be handwritten. The application also needs a certificate of status, usually form VAT66A or an equivalent from the claimant's own tax authority, valid for 12 months across every claim made in that period.
A claim has to cover at least three months and no more than the full prescribed year, unless it is mopping up the remainder of a year. The minimum claim value is £16 for a full prescribed year or a remainder period, and £130 for a shorter period of three months or more (GOV.UK, 2026).
Claims reach the Overseas Repayments Unit in Newcastle by post, or electronically through HMRC's Secure Data Exchange Service. SDES needs prior registration, and HMRC asks for access requests by 30 November if you intend to meet the 31 December deadline. It pays a satisfactory application within six months and works through claims first come, first served, applying the deadline strictly, so a claim submitted late is refused rather than delayed.
What to Do Before 31 December
Start with a list of every non-UK entity in the VAT group and the UK VAT each one paid from 1 July 2025 onwards. Against the £16 and £130 floors it becomes obvious quickly whether a 2025 to 2026 claim is worth filing.
Then look backwards. Pull any refusal letters from the Overseas Repayments Unit dated 1 January 2021 or later and check the stated reason. If it turns on the identity of the claimant rather than the substance of the expenditure, that claim is a candidate for reconsideration.
In our experience the certificate of status is what delays these claims, because it comes from an overseas tax authority on its own timetable. A UAE claimant needs the FTA to issue one, so that is worth starting now rather than in December. A UAE tax residency certificate is a different document and will not substitute.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this apply if the UK representative member paid the invoice?
No. Where the representative member itself incurred the VAT, it claims in the normal way through its UK VAT return. The change only affects VAT incurred by a non-UK member of the group.
Our group has three overseas members. Do we file three claims?
From 1 July 2026, yes. Each member claims for the VAT it incurred, with its own VAT65A and its own certificate of status. For the 2025 to 2026 year you can still consolidate through the representative member if that is simpler.
We are registered for UK VAT. Does any of this affect us?
No. If an entity is registered, liable or eligible to register for UK VAT, it recovers input tax on its VAT return and cannot use the overseas refund scheme. Our guide to the £90,000 registration threshold covers where that line sits.
What happens if we miss 31 December 2026?
The VAT for that prescribed year is lost. HMRC applies the six-month time limit strictly and there is no general extension, which is why the scheme is unforgiving compared with the correction rules on a standard quarterly VAT return.
Does this change the UAE side of a group's VAT position?
No. UAE VAT grouping and recovery run on their own rules, including the FTA's tests on when a foreign business has a fixed establishment in the UAE. The two systems have to be worked separately.
If your group has overseas members paying UK VAT, it is worth checking both halves of this before December: the claim that is due now, and anything HMRC refused since 2021. Get in touch and we will review your VAT group structure and the refusal letters with you. We handle UK and UAE positions from the same team, so cross-border groups do not need two sets of advisers to answer one question.