MercedesServiceCard: help with value added tax refunding

Service

Tax? Card!*

Wilfried Wirtz is a specialist for ‘high value’, encompassing precious freight and complex transportation throughout Europe. So he’s glad that there’s one thing he doesn’t have to take care of: the refunding of value added tax and mineral oil tax from abroad. This is done via the MercedesServiceCard.


Shake and rattle as much as you like: it’s pointless! The refrigerated trailer with the sun logo on it is locked tight! It can only be opened from a secure computer. And that computer is located at the haulage company Wirtz in Bornheim near Bonn. It doesn’t matter whether the trailer is parked within sight on the yard or somewhere else in Europe.

“The locking system works via GPS, and we developed it ourselves,” says managing director Wilfried Wirtz. He runs one of Germany’s leading companies for the haulage of particularly valuable and therefore theft-endangered goods: smartphones, processors, video games, as well as expensive perfume, as in the case of the artic pictured standing in the yard. All of the fleet’s trailers have special locking systems.

Pharmaceuticals customers also often book haulage assignments with the additional security. “We frequently transport active substances for medicines,” says Wirtz. “Some loads only weigh a few kilograms, but they are extremely valuable!” Other loads are classified as dangerous goods and are subject to national narcotics law stipulations. “The trucks then have to drive in daylight and park at police stations. Not to mention the load restraint provisions – so these trips need really extensive planning.”


Wirtz operates throughout Europe, also transporting food as well as the ‘high value’ freight. And whether in Belgium, Poland or Portugal: drivers need to refuel and are often charged for the use of motorways, bridges, tunnels and parking. Value added tax (VAT) is also payable. Depending on the country and product, the companies can have this refunded. What is a simple process for nationals in Germany, for example, is sometimes complicated in other European countries. Each one has its own tax requirements, and the authorities communicate in the local language, in many instances, not until months after the VAT refund application has been submitted.

Handling the matter via the MercedesServiceCard, which Wirtz has been using successfully for years, is a lot easier. If his drivers have to refuel while working abroad, they do so with the MercedesServiceCard at one of the many acceptance points. Settlement is cashless. The decisive aspect for VAT is that the invoice of the MercedesServiceCard partner UTA is the basis of the organisation of refunding.

In addition to basic refunding, UTA also offers what is known as fast refunding, via which VAT is already credited in the subsequent invoice after 14 days. This way, the operator can, if desired, get the value added tax back in the shortest possible time. In some countries, UTA also settles the proportionate refunding of mineral oil tax.

Wirtz is convinced that the service pays off in two respects. First, financially: every year, his trucks require about one million litres of fuel abroad. For this alone, the VAT figure involved is approximately 180 000 euros. Having this amount available again quickly is a real advantage. “And: I need a strong partner who can take care of things like this so that I can concentrate on my core business – and I’ve got that partner!”

www.mercedesservicecard.com

www.uta.com

www.spedition-wirtz.de

* MercedesServiceCard is not applicable to the UK market

Photos: Ralf Kreuels

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