If you are chronically sick or disabled, most items at Premier Mobility (UK) Limited are available free of VAT if you are buying them for personal and domestic use and they are relevant to your condition. To claim VAT exemption, the individual(s) must have a relevant disability.
How does VAT relief work?
If the goods or services you buy qualify for the VAT relief, your supplier will give you a sales invoice showing VAT at 0 per cent. This means that you won’t be charged VAT. (It’s not a case of you having to pay the VAT and then claiming it back from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Who can buy qualifying goods and services without paying VAT?
You will be able to buy goods and services that are eligible for VAT relief if –
You are chronically sick or disabled.
You are buying them for your own personal or domestic use.
What is meant by chronically sick or disabled?
For the purposes of the VAT relief, you are chronically sick or disabled if:
You have a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect upon your ability to carry out everyday activities.
You have a condition that the medical profession treats as a chronic sickness, such as diabetes.
You have a terminal illness.
You won’t qualify if you are only temporarily disabled or incapacitated, such as suffering from a broken leg or other temporary injury. Neither will you qualify if you are elderly but are otherwise able-bodied and don’t suffer from any chronic condition.
What is meant by personal or domestic use?
Personal or domestic use means that the goods or services are supplied for your own private use, rather than for business purposes.
Also they must be just for your own use – not for use by anyone else, or any other chronically sick or disabled people in general.
However, if you and your partner are both chronically sick or disabled and you buy goods or services for both of you to use, then you won’t have to pay VAT.
What goods and services can be bought without paying VAT?
If you have a long-term illness or you’re disabled, you won’t have to pay VAT when you buy any of the following items for your own personal or domestic use:
Medical or surgical appliances designed solely for the relief of a severe abnormality or severe injury.
Electrically or mechanically adjustable beds designed for invalids.
Sanitary devices, such as commode chairs, commode stools and frames for sitting on or rising from a sanitary appliance.
Chairlifts or stairlifts designed for use in connection with invalid wheelchairs.
Invalid wheelchairs and invalid carriages.
Hoists and lifters designed for use by invalids (this includes ‘lift & tilt’ or ‘riser’ chairs).
Emergency alarm call systems of the type that link you to a specified person or a central control centre.
Incontinence products, such as disposable/washable pads and collecting devices.
Certain types of auditory aids (but not standard hearing aids).
Certain types of low vision aids (but not spectacles and contact lenses).
The lease of a Motability vehicle.
What you need to do to buy qualifying goods and services without paying VAT
You’ll have to give the seller a written declaration stating that you are chronically sick or disabled and are entitled to buy qualifying goods and services VAT free.
This declaration has to give enough information to show that you qualify. Normally, the supplier will provide you with the declaration for you to fill in and sign. They also have to fill part of it in, and then keep it with their records.
If you are unable to sign the written declaration yourself, the signature of your parent, guardian, doctor or another responsible person is acceptable.
If you provide a satisfactory declaration the seller will then be able to sell you the goods or services without charging you VAT.