VAT Claim Refusal Reason Code 11

[TerryE]

The good news is that HMRC have settled our claim on all items bar one.   The bad news was that this was our single largest item: our fitted kitchen which we bought from Wickes.  The claimed total was correct in that we excluded the non-claimable items.  The refusal reason wording was "Not a VAT invoice -- Pro--Formas / Quotations / Sales Orders / Order Confirmations / Illegible Invoices / Photocopies / Invoices without company VAT registration numbers are not acceptable invoices".

 

The Issue seems to be that Wickes Document does not have the word "Invoice" on it.  It does include everything else:

• Customer details
• Seller details
• Order reference
• VAT number
• Order itemisation
• Pricing details based on Wickes list prices plus discounts, and itemisation of installation services (£0).
• Confirmation of Payment details.

What it doesn't do is to separately itemise VAT and excl VAT subtotals.  We've chased the Wickes salesman a couple of time and we getting the run -around.  "That's what we issue customers; we don't give any other document".  They got no interest in this as this was an order completed a couple of years ago.  I've tried the customer service -- no response.  And time is ticking towards or 30 day appeal limit.  Very frustrating as this is worth £2K to us.

 

We will see what happens, but the main lesson learnt is that you should make sure you get a valid VAT receipt for big ticket items at the time of purchase.  

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by TerryE

[Temp]

I think i wouls send a copy of the HMRC rejection to the complaints department at head office pointing out that HMRC don't consider it a valid VAT invoice and ask them to provide one.

 

 Google suggests its at :

19 Colonial Way, Watford WD24 4JL

Per

 

[Carrerahill]

3 minutes ago, Temp said:

I think i wouls send a copy of the HMRC rejection to the complaints department at head office pointing out that HMRC don't consider it a valid VAT invoice and ask them to provide one.

 

 Google suggests its at :

19 Colonial Way, Watford WD24 4JL

Per

 

I would do this too. Let's face it, if HMRC say that the paperwork from Wicks is not a suitable form of invoice then the authority has spoken. Having said that, it all seems a bit ridiculous, that a large known firm such as Wicks who are very traceable and known to all have had their invoice questioned by HMRC - I could understand if it was Builder Bob of no fixed address in case it was a scam but it's a legit paper receipt!

 

[nod]

We have just submitted 

We purchased a German kitchen and had exactly the same issue as you 

Proformas not invoices 

When we contacted the company They said sorry we don’t re issue invoices 

We went around the houses telling them that a Proforma is not an invoice 

It took three weeks of arguing to finally get the three invoices 

 

The annoying thing is we hadn’t or misplayed eBay invoices 

They were good as gold and sent copies on the day 

It seems to be the big companies that do this 

But I’m glad that the rest of your refund has come through 

[TerryE]

I spoke too soon.  One of the salesman has just emailed us a VAT invoice.  It just took some shaking of the tree Let's hope that HMRC accept this one.  

[Pete]

3 minutes ago, TerryE said:

I spoke too soon.  One of the salesman has just emailed us a VAT invoice.  It just took some shaking of the tree Let's hope that HMRC accept this one.  

Hope you get sorted Terry

[newhome]

No consolation to you but I got my kitchen refunded and I didn’t have a piece of paper saying ‘invoice’. I sent all of the order documentation that had name / address on it, and all of the itemised receipts that showed the VAT registration number etc. Unfortunately it seems that it’s down to the person who checked your claim. 

 

If it’s within 4 years there is no reason why Wickes can’t issue what is required so do write to them. It’s annoying however as there is some discretion when a company is providing alternative evidence for claiming input tax but that discretion hasn’t been allowed for your reclaim. Inconsistency at its worst! 

 

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-input-tax/vit31200

 

 

[newhome]

And my reply crossed with yours! Good news indeed re the invoice. 

[lizzie]

Glad you got the invoice and hopefully they wont take too long to process it

[nod]

3 hours ago, TerryE said:

The good news is that HMRC have settled our claim on all items bar one.   The bad news was that this was our single largest item: our fitted kitchen which we bought from Wickes.  The claimed total was correct in that we excluded the non-claimable items.  The refusal reason wording was "Not a VAT invoice -- Pro--Formas / Quotations / Sales Orders / Order Confirmations / Illegible Invoices / Photocopies / Invoices without company VAT registration numbers are not acceptable invoices".

 

The Issue seems to be that Wickes Document does not have the word "Invoice" on it.  It does include everything else:

• Customer details
• Seller details
• Order reference
• VAT number
• Order itemisation
• Pricing details based on Wickes list prices plus discounts, and itemisation of installation services (£0).
• Confirmation of Payment details.

What it doesn't do is to separately itemise VAT and excl VAT subtotals.  We've chased the Wickes salesman a couple of time and we getting the run -around.  "That's what we issue customers; we don't give any other document".  They got no interest in this as this was an order completed a couple of years ago.  I've tried the customer service -- no response.  And time is ticking towards or 30 day appeal limit.  Very frustrating as this is worth £2K to us.

 

We will see what happens, but the main lesson learnt is that you should make sure you get a valid VAT receipt for big ticket items at the time of purchase.  

 

Just a matter of interest Terry 

How long from submission did it take

 

[Roundtuit]

5 hours ago, TerryE said:

I spoke too soon.  One of the salesman has just emailed us a VAT invoice.  It just took some shaking of the tree Let's hope that HMRC accept this one.  

Good.  We submitted wickes invoice for our kitchen and they went through ok, so no reason yours should be any different.  Unfortunately we got our window supply invoice (the only one...) worth £4K bounced for reason code 18: detailed breakdown required.  I submitted the required detail the next day, but should have thought to send it first time round to support the headline figures. 

 

We submitted our claim on 17th April, and had a decision letter dated 17th June agreeing everything but the windows.  Still awaiting news on the last 4K.

[nod]

28 minutes ago, Roundtuit said:

Good.  We submitted wickes invoice for our kitchen and they went through ok, so no reason yours should be any different.  Unfortunately we got our window supply invoice (the only one...) worth £4K bounced for reason code 18: detailed breakdown required.  I submitted the required detail the next day, but should have thought to send it first time round to support the headline figures. 

 

We submitted our claim on 17th April, and had a decision letter dated 17th June agreeing everything but the windows.  Still awaiting news on the last 4K.

Thanks 

Not to long Then 

[TerryE]

7 hours ago, newhome said:

Unfortunately it seems that it’s down to the person who checked your claim. 

 

If it’s within 4 years there is no reason why Wickes can’t issue what is required so do write to them. It’s annoying however as there is some discretion when a company is providing alternative evidence for claiming input tax but that discretion hasn’t been allowed for your reclaim. Inconsistency at its worst!  

 

Yup, especially as there is a complete section of the submission for invoices where the VAT isn't separately itemised! It seemed a bit capricious to reject what is clearly a valid order confirmation and payment from a major retailer because net amounts and VAT were not separately itemised.  Perhaps this would be reasonable if there were multiple VAT rates, but in this case everything is at 20% anyway.  I suspect that the processing admin needed to "add value" or be seen to do her job by finding at least one error, and this was the one she chose.

 

However, I feel it totally counter-productive to let any irritation or sarcasm show in your responses when dealing with this sort of process administration, whether it is Planning, BControl, or as in this case VAT Reclaim.  The person that you are dealing with is usually having to do a pretty shitty job on a pretty low salary, so being a smart-arse is quite unfair, IMO.  I just try to bite my tongue, and write a friendly but direct response to any issues raised.  I also leave it for 12+ hours before both Jan and I reread the response, in case I've left some signs of irritation in.  Get rid of it.

 

 

[JanetE]

@nod  we submitted our VAT claim on the 1st March. They wrote querying the delay from our moving in, on the 19th December 2017 and issuing of the completion certificate at the end of February this year. We wrote back gave them a long spiel about how Terry had been ill for much of 2018 (all true and verifiable) and let them have invoices for work subsequent to our moving in which were zero rated but a requirement of our planning conditions. They passed our claim and returned all invoices on the 28th June, bar the Wickes one of course.

 

[newhome]

Looks like your claim was about 4 weeks faster than mine from a year before. So they are hopefully speeding up a bit, albeit much slower than their SLA.