Refund of contributions incurred by the Armed Forces of any Member State other than Spain for acquisitions linked to efforts made within the scope of the common security and defence policy

With effect from 1 July 2022, an exemption from Value Added Tax is established for imports, internal transactions and intra-Community acquisitions of goods made by the armed forces of any Member State other than Spain, for use by said forces or the civilian personnel in their service, or for the supply of their dining rooms or canteens, provided that said forces are affected by a defence effort carried out to carry out an activity of the Union within the scope of the common security and defence policy.

The above exemptions have been developed by the Regulation implementing tax exemptions relating to the Armed Forces of the Member States of the European Union affected by a defence effort in the field of the common security and defence policy and establishing the procedure for their application, approved by Royal Decree 443/2023, of June 13.

With regard to exemptions in internal and intra-Community operations, Article 5 of the aforementioned Regulation establishes two procedures for the application of these exemptions: a direct exemption procedure upon obtaining the corresponding certificate and a return or reimbursement procedure that requires a prior request from the beneficiary.

As regards the refund procedure, it will be used in those cases where the certificate is not possible at the time of the operation.

This refund will be requested by submitting form 381 . This submission must be made electronically via the Internet.

Refund requests must refer to the fees incurred in each calendar quarter and must be submitted within six months following the end of the period to which they correspond. Exceptionally, applications for the third and fourth quarters of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 will be submitted within the submission period for the second quarter of 2023.

When submitting the form, a file containing an electronic copy of the following documents must be attached:

• Invoices

• Certificate justifying the granting by the competent authorities of the Member State to which the armed forces belong of the right to acquire goods or services with an exemption. 

However, the completion of the invoice list may be replaced by the submission of a file containing the invoice list.