When trying to save money on business travel, people often miss the easy win that is VAT recovery on hotel bills. We will walk you through the basics of claiming back up to 25% (once the VAT rate is restored in Jan 2021) of your Hotel spend in the UK.
When would our company not be charged VAT on accommodation?
On a UK based hotel? The short answer here is never. It may seem like your company has not been charged VAT on UK hotel accommodation because there is no VAT on the invoice you receive (or you don’t receive an invoice). However, this does not mean that no VAT is being charged, it just means that the VAT is built into the price while not being included on the invoice. This will be because the booking website is operating under TOMS and is therefore not permitted to include VAT on the invoice although your company is still effectively bearing the 20% VAT cost.
As a result of Brexit, the way you recover VAT on hotel accommodation in countries within the EU will change, but you will still be entitled to VAT recovery on this hotel accommodation.