Tax Free Sales to BFPO Addresses

A question about : Tax Free Sales to BFPO Addresses

Thought it would be a good idea to set up a new thread to list which companies will refund your tax and people's experiences etc using them. I've ordered from the below over the last few months :

Amazon - will ship upto 30kgs as part of their £15 free p&p offer, but check before you order on larger items. Delivery is normally quick. Easy to claim tax back, just send a quick e-mail to customer service explaining how you're entitled and the refund will be made. Always remember to watch for next 30 days to see if price drop and then contact customer service and they'll refund the difference too!

M&M Sports - My DH orders a lot of bits from them, but the delivery is slow. With regards to claiming the tax back - they requested a letter from your CO, with your unit stamp explaining how you're entitled. Once they've received it they update your file accordingly and you don't need to do it every time you order.

I have bought bits & bobs from others, but will update when I get another couple of minutes. Hope people want to share the knowledge!

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Best answers:

• Cheers for the info.
  Any trouble with ordering at BFPO addresses tends to be less from the retailers and more the guys sorting the mail in theatre!!
  Or the Royal Mail going on strike just before Christmas and causing a massive backlog and making us miss our Xmas mail
• Here is the site with all of the details:
  https://www.bfpo.mod.uk/
  and here are the companies that will deal and deliver to BFPO addresses:
  https://www.bfpo.mod.uk/deliveries_via_bfpo.htm
  In my experiance there are many more that are not on these lists and it is often worth asking. Having just returned from the Falklands I found that many companies just wanted an official letter (normally signed off by an officer or Admin to cover there tax exempt authority) saying that you were serving outside the EU and hence UK VAT exempt. Proof of entitlement was also that the delivery address was outside of the EU.
  One of the problems I had was that some companies did not know how the BFPO system works, in that you pay UK postal charges for the item to be delivered to Northholt (used to be Mill Hill) under the UK Royal Mail system, after which it would enter the BFPO system to be delivered to theatre. Some companies tried to charge me the full delivery costs to the Falklands and I had the argue the issue saying that if it was lost in the post because it only had UK postage on it instead of the full to Falklands cost, I would take the risk.
• I had problems in Iraq getting stuff delivered from Amazon tbh. They didn't recognise BFPO 41 until I pointed out to them where it was!
• Excuse the ignorance - why is there an entitlement to tax back? Are you not treated as UK people as you're at BFPO addresses?
• you are confusing vat and income tax . Servicemen pay uk income tax and nat ins ,whether they are posted to london or kabul or anywhere else on the planet.Whilst serving overseas some items can have vat reclaimed at 17.5 % but only some things, Strangely i think civil servants overseas have the same priviedges !
• Don't forget forcesdiscounts-mod.co.uk and on armynet go to 'resources' - 'gear' - 'discounts', including a very attractive offer from Panasonic (fantastic company! thanks guys).
• Lakeland leather offer VAT free delivery to BFPOs - always a winner when the OH loves handbags and purses.
  The best thing is you can automatically select to deliver to qualifying BFPOs and the VAT is taken off before you pay.
  www.lakelandleather.co.uk
• Hello,
  I'm delighted to offer Vat free shopping with no delivery charges to all BFPO addresses.
  Regards, Robert
  Director
  The Gentleman's Shop Ltd
  www.gentlemans-shop.com
• Richer Sounds also has a tax free sales. Need to contact them.
  Richer Sounds is an electrical company selling stereo's, tv's etc
• Yes, Clarkey you're wasting your hard-earned pennies!
  It was a news story on BFBS a couple of weeks ago - a soldier serving overseas (BFG I think) had played online and won, but wasn't allowed to claim his winnings because he wasn't a UK resident (even though he had a UK bank account). What a joke eh.
• That's crazy! Oh well, I'm off to change my subscription and put it in my mum's name! (must remember not to annoy her just in case....)
• Hi All,
  I have a couple of comments for this thread.
  Tax free Entitlement
  As has already been mentioned, even when serving overseas UK Forces personnel have to pay income tax and NI contributions.
  Forces personnel in Germany for example are allowed gods from the UK under an agreement with the German government but there is a bit of paperwork involved.
  Amazon for example do refund VAT with just an email after orders have been despatched to a BFPO address, this is the incorrect way to do it but I know from experience it is very welcome when you are out there as Amazon are reliable.
  Before I left the army and in the process of setting the business up I cleared an entire VAT free system through customs and immigration out there only to lose thousands when they turned round and told me that I was not entitled to sell things VAT free and quoted regulations that had in front of me and parts of them that didn't exist.
  Lottery
  BFPO users are not allowed to play the lottery, I have had this out with Camelot and the National Lottery Commission but got nowhere.
  I will be offering a National Lottery service in the near future where users can play there line for up to 6 months so they can go away on tour and all winning will be credited to the customers balance. I just have to get it cleared so that I will be doing this in a legal way and therefore winnings will not be withheld.
  Sky TV
  Believe it or not it is a similar situation with Sky TV. users outside the UK are not allowed to subscribe. This is horrendous when you are based overseas serving your country and if they find out that you took your system outside of the UK as you have been posted overseas they will cancel your account with no hesitation.
  Again, I am looking at a way around this as part of our expanding service. This facility may not be in line with Sky's policy but when you are based overseas you don't care, you just want to watch the same TV as everybody else.
• Lottery is a joke we should still be able to play.
  Google sky tv bfpo some results there that might be helpful. I don't think sky is a problem for those serving abroad that may have had it in the UK
• I think the best bet is to use your UK address when registering and your UK bank account to set up your lottery account. After all if you are a uk tax payer and pay NI as forces personnel do then this is acceptable. what you can't do is register your BFPO address for delivery of mail from camelot. If your bank account is registered at your BFPO address then open an account and register it at your UK address and use that one for your account. That is what i do anyway and it works for me as i receive winnings into my internet account.
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