VAT refund from EU countries

What is a VAT refund from EU countries?

A VAT refund from EU countries is a separate scheme. It is for reclaiming VAT you paid in another EU country. It never goes on your Dutch VAT return.¹ You file a refund request with the Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax authority. It forwards your request to the country where you paid.

The scheme covers goods and services you bought in another EU country. It also covers VAT you paid there on importing goods from outside the EU.¹

Take Leila. She runs a lighting business in Utrecht and exhibited at a trade fair in Cologne. Her stand rental, her hotel and her fuel carried €1,180 of German VAT.

New to how VAT works here? Start with our guide to VAT and the Dutch VAT return. The main points of the refund scheme are below.

A refund request is its own route alongside your VAT return. Whether you can use it comes down to three conditions.

Who can claim a VAT refund from another EU country?

You can claim back EU VAT when your Dutch business paid VAT abroad. You must not file a VAT return there.² Three conditions have to be true at once.

You run your business from the Netherlands.² You file no VAT return in the country where you paid the VAT.² You use those goods and services for VAT-taxed business activities.²

You no longer need a verklaring van hoedanigheid, the old statement confirming you are an entrepreneur.²

Two groups fall outside the scheme. Are you not a VAT entrepreneur? Then you cannot use the scheme. The same applies when you only supply goods and services that are exempt from VAT.²

Leila meets all three. She runs a Dutch BV, a private limited company, files no German VAT return and charges VAT on her work.

Two other routes look similar and lead somewhere else.

Do you meet those three conditions? Then two things decide your request: how much and by when.

What are the deadline and the minimum amounts?

Your request must be in before 1 October. That is 1 October of the year after you paid the VAT.² The amount has to clear a minimum as well.² Which minimum applies depends on the period your request covers.² Over a full calendar year that minimum is €50.² Over a shorter period without December it is €400.² The €50 minimum also applies to a period that ends in December.²

One rule catches more businesses out than any other.

Leila files one request over the full calendar year. The minimum for that period is €50.² Her €1,180 clears it easily.

This is where most business owners make a choice. Do you set aside an afternoon for it? Or do you hand the whole request over?

So what does filing it yourself actually involve? It starts with a login you have to request first.

How do you file a VAT refund request?

You file on the Belastingdienst's Teruggaaf van btw uit andere EU-landen site. That is the VAT refund portal for other EU countries.³ You need separate login details for it.³ The site does not work with DigiD, the Dutch personal login for government services. You apply through the Belastingdienst's checklist tool, which first confirms that you meet the conditions.³ Did you pay VAT in several EU countries? Then you file a separate request per country.⁴

Two settings then shape the request. The first is your pro rata percentage, the share of your business activities that is subject to VAT. Only that share qualifies for a refund.¹ The percentage stands at 100% until you change it.¹

The second is what the country you claim from wants to see. Several EU countries ask you to attach the invoices or import documents.¹ Paper ones you scan in first.¹ The requirements differ per country and per type of cost. The Belastingdienst publishes the current list per country.¹

Does your advisor file for you? They need their own intermediary login details.³ You request yours as well and then authorise them.³

With the login in place, the request itself is a short job. Two situations ask for an extra step first.

Once the request is with the other EU country, fixed terms take over.

What happens after you submit your request?

The tax authority of the country where you paid the VAT decides. It does so within 4 months of your request.² It approves your request, rejects it or approves part of it. After approval it pays within 10 working days of that 4-month period ending.² Different terms apply when it asks for extra information.² Is a decision or payment late? Then contact the tax authority of that country.² Is your request rejected? Contact us for the next step.

The rules cover delays too. If the Belastingdienst takes longer than 15 days to forward your request, you may be entitled to interest compensation.¹ The Belastingdienst calls that coulancerente.

You can still change a request, but only after the Belastingdienst has forwarded it.¹ You open a correction request, adjust the latest version and file it. Your correction gets its own request number and your original request keeps its reference number.¹ Correcting your Dutch VAT return is a different job. We cover that on the page about correcting your VAT return.

The route to that refund site is expected to change.

What is changing in the request process?

The Belastingdienst is expected to move VAT refund requests to Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk. The exact start date has not been announced yet.¹ You would then log in with DigiD or eHerkenning instead of separate login details.¹ eHerkenning is the Dutch business login for organisations.

Three things are expected to change with it. Paper requests end. All communication about your request runs through the portal. You receive an email as soon as a new document or action is waiting.¹

One detail matters most for anyone who works with an advisor. Under the new route your advisor needs a valid authorisation specifically for VAT refund. An authorisation for your VAT return does not cover it.¹

Our advisors follow this migration closely. It changes who can act for you and from when.

These rules come down to a few concrete steps.

What does this mean for your business?

Review what you paid in foreign VAT last year. Does one request clear €50 over the full year? Or €400 over a shorter period? Then that request is worth making. Put 1 October in your calendar and work backwards from there.

Three steps get you there. Request your login details. Or ask your advisor to arrange the authorisation. Collect the invoices carrying foreign VAT, grouped per country. Then file one request per country, over the period that fits your amounts.⁴

Leila filed in March, six months before the deadline. The Belastingdienst forwarded her request for the €1,180 to the German tax authority. What Germany decides is not in our hands. Filing on time is.

Two related obligations often come up in the same conversation. Supplying goods or services to businesses in other EU countries has its own filing, the ICP declaration for intra-EU supplies. Selling to consumers in other EU countries runs through the Union scheme for e-commerce. There you pay VAT abroad rather than reclaim it.