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VAT Relief Guidelines

Most products on essentialaids.com are available without VAT for those entitled to exemption. Most of these are bought with VAT Relief as our customers are largely people with a disability or a long term medical condition.

These items are clearly marked "at 0% VAT Rate" with "VAT Relief Explained" on the product pages themselves.

Buying at zero rate VAT from this website

Buying at zero rate from Essential Aids is very straightforward.

For a step-by-step guide to the process, please click here.

VAT relief for the disabled or chronically ill

If you are chronically sick or disabled, most items at essentialaids.com are available free of VAT if you are buying them for personal and domestic use and they are relevant to your condition. The goods that are free of VAT are either:

- incontinence products shown as 0% VAT

- products that are eligible to buy that are shown as "at 0% VAT Rate" with a "VAT Relief Explained" link below

To claim VAT relief on those products, you, or the individual you are buying for, must have a relevant disability or be chronically sick and be buying the products for personal or domestic use.

The Government says that a person is chronically sick or disabled if they are a person with:

- a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out everyday activities
or
- a condition which the medical profession treats as a chronic sickness, such as diabetes

It does not include an elderly person who is not disabled or chronically sick or any person who’s only temporarily disabled or incapacitated, such as with a broken limb. It does include people who are terminally ill.

You can claim VAT Relief if you are buying on behalf of someone entitled to exemption but we will need that person's details - their full name and their disability or details of their condition if chronically sick.

If you are in any doubt as to your status, please check with your local Customs and Excise VAT office who will be able to confirm your eligibility or click here to see an information page on the HMRC website.

VAT relief for charities

In many circumstances, charities in the UK do not have to pay VAT.

If you are buying on behalf of a registered charity and want to claim tax relief, please state this as you check out of the website.

For more information, please visit this official website: www.gov.uk/vat-charities.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about any aspect of VAT relief, and we'll do our best to help.

Your Privacy

Any details that you provide us about a disability or chronic illness are kept secure and will only be shown to HMRC VAT Inspectors should they require them.