FLEET managers have given a mixed reception to new rules designed to sidestep potential damaging European legislation for reclaiming VAT on fuel bought by individual drivers.

Last week (December 8), Fleet News revealed that HM Revenue & Customs had introduced new legislation that allowed companies to continue to claim VAT on fuel bought by their drivers, providing they had a VAT receipt to cover the fill-ups made.

This meets the demand of the European Sixth Directive, which states that companies can only reclaim the tax if the fuel is bought by a VAT-registered company.

Some members of ACFO London West welcomed the decision and said it was a simple way of maintaining the status quo. But others said the need for drivers to provide VAT receipts to back up their mileage claims would be a problem. Drivers might lose receipts, fail to ask for them or hand in the wrong ones.

ACFO claimed this should not be a problem for many companies, because drivers should already be obtaining VAT receipts to present to their employers to back up mileage claims. The new regime is set to be introduced on January 1.