On Aug 4, 2013, at 11:47 PM, John R Levine wrote: >>> At last week's very successful Berlin meeting, the finances were >>> thrown of whack by the late discovery that the IETF had to pay 19% >>> German VAT on the registration fee. At the IAOC session they said >>> that about half of that is likely to be reclaimed from VAT paid, but >>> the net amount is still a large number. >> >> The usual IANAL and IANAC should not be joined by IANACPA. >> >> But a CPA at my company said that we couldn't reclaim the VAT, because the "service" was consumed in Germany. If others hear different from their accounting departments, I'd love to hear about it. > > Ray said the tax guys told him the IETF would get back about half of the VAT it paid. That's unrelated to what anyone can reclaim. > > My understanding is that Germany has reciprocal VAT agreements with a bunch of countries so if your employer is in one of those countries it may be able to reclaim, but since the US isn't one of them I haven't looked in detail. The IAOC posted an FAQ on the subject at: <https://www.ietf.org/meeting/87/vat.html> See the links in the FAQ related to non-European countries that can reclaim the VAT. Ray IAD The Google English translation of the list is: Andorra Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Antigua and Barbuda Korea, Republic of (as of 1 January 1999) Australia Croatia (as of 1 January 2010) Bahamas Kuwait Bahrain Lebanon Bermuda Liberia Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 January 2006) Libya British Virgin Islands Liechtenstein Brunei Darussalam Macao Grand Cayman Island Maldives China (Taiwan) (1 July 2010) Macedonia (from 1 April 2000) Gibraltar Netherlands Antilles (30 April 1999) Grenada Norway Greenland Oman Guernsey Pakistan (from 1 July 2008) Hong Kong (PR China) Solomon Islands Iraq San Marino Iran Saudi Arabia Iceland Switzerland Israel (from 14 July 1998) St. Vincent and the Grenadines Jamaica Swaziland Japan Vatican Jersey United Arab Emirates Canada United States of America (USA) Qatar > > R's, > John