Another RHA win as EU countries honour NI fuel rebate payments

All participating EU countries have now agreed to honour commitments to pay fuel rebates to NI hauliers following an RHA campaign on the issue - and we are now calling for those who had claims refused to resubmit.

The RHA on behalf of its members was successful in lobbying the European Commission in conjunction with HMRC for the re-instatement of the TIPCE road fuel rebate scheme for fuel purchased in certain EU states.

While there were some initial teething issues with claims, particularly surrounding proving NI hauliers were established within Northern Ireland, these were largely overcome when we suggested by providing a UK Community Licence issued to a NI operator being accepted as sufficient evidence with the addition on occasions of an XI number.

Spain 

There was, however, a lingering problem with Spain’s apparent refusal to honour the commitments made within the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol and accept TIPCE claims from Northern Irish hauliers. Spain’s view was NI hauliers were UK operators and since it had left the EU, there was no entitlement.

This refusal was challenged by the RHA through HMRC and the European Commission and the Irish Government and Spanish authorities have now accept they must process claims from Northern Irish hauliers and make payments to qualifying claims.

However, given Spain were refusing to honour claims since 1 January 2021, HMRC are keen to ascertain more detail in regard to any claims that Northern Ireland hauliers had refused by them and have requested we seek additional information from members who had claims refused.

Time bound

The process for submitting claims is time bound and considering Spain were refusing claims from the outset with some other countries initially refusing claims, there is a potential case that these claims should be resubmitted, even if they are now outside the timeframe for submission.

If any member has had a claim refused, HMRC through the Commission may be able to require Spain to review it and honour payments for qualifying claims.

To enable HMRC to formally challenge any refused claims they are seeking information on the following:

• How many businesses processed claims through to Spain and how many were paid?
• If claims were refused, what were the reasons for non-payment?
• Was there any difficulty in proving establishment, i.e. if the business is established in NI, what proof did you provide?
• Were there similar issues for claims to other Member States including Ireland and Belgium or were those claims paid with no issues?

Without members support and input we will not be able to provide evidence to enable HMRC to challenge Spain or other Countries through the Commission who initially refused claims to re-open them and honour payments.

You feedback and support would be greatly appreciated on this issue, please contact [email protected]