Section 2: Exemption from VAT and tax refunds

§ 4a VAT refund for supplies for use for humanitarian, charitable or educational purposes in third country territory

(1) A tax refund is granted, upon application, to corporate bodies whose purposes are exclusively and directly communal, charitable or religious (§§ 51 to 68 of the Fiscal Code) and to bodies governed by public law in order to offset the VAT incurred on the supply of goods made to them, its importation or its intra-Community acquisition, where the following conditions are met:

1. The supply, importation or the intra-Community acquisition of the goods must have been subject to VAT.

2. The VAT attributable to the supply of goods must be separately stated on an invoice issued in accordance with § 14 and must have been paid as part of the purchase price.

3. The VAT due on the importation or intra-Community acquisition of the goods must have been paid.

4. The goods must have arrived in the third country territory.

5. The goods must be used in the third country territory for humanitarian, charitable or educational purposes.

6. The acquisition or importation of the goods and their export must not have been carried out by a corporate body that pursues tax-privileged objectives as part of a commercial business operation or by a legal person under public law as part of its business.

7. Proof must be provided that the aforementioned conditions have been met.

The application on which the applicant himself must calculate the refund to be granted must be made by using the official pre-printed form or by remote data transmission.

(2) The Federal Ministry of Finance, with the consent of the Federal Council, may issue a directive specifying more precisely

1. how the requirements for the refund claim, according to paragraph 1 sentence 1, are to be demonstrated, and

2. the time period within which the refund must be applied for.