Netherlands – Refund of foreign VAT; take action before 1 October 2020

If you received invoices with foreign VAT from another EU country in 2019, you can reclaim this VAT from the Dutch tax authorities. This does not apply if you are located in that specific country or if you owe VAT. A refund request must be submitted no later than 30 September.

Conditions for refund

• To be able to make a VAT refund request for foreign VAT, the following conditions apply:
• Your company or organization is not located in the EU Member State where you want to reclaim VAT, but it is located in another EU Member State;
• Your company or organization has not carried out any activities in the EU Member State on which you owe VAT;

In any case, your company or organization carries out activities for which you are entitled to deduct input tax. Please note that the VAT legislation of the Member State of refund is also important in this condition.

If you do not meet the conditions mentioned under 1 and 2, you can reclaim the VAT via the regular VAT return. If you do not meet condition 3, you cannot submit a refund request.

NB: Member States have deduction restrictions for certain costs. It is therefore possible that you will not (fully) recover the VAT on certain costs.

Submission procedure

You can submit a refund request for foreign VAT via the portal of the Dutch tax authorities. You need login details for this. If you do not have it, you can request it. If you already have the login details, but have forgotten them, you should not request them again, but you can contact the Tax Phone (0800-0543). Please note that processing the login credentials may take several weeks, particularly during the holiday season. The Dutch tax authorities will forward the request to the tax authorities of the other Member State. You will receive confirmation of receipt from the Dutch tax authorities when they receive your request. The Member State of refund will also inform you when they have received your request.

Situation in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom left the EU on January 31, 2020, ending the possibility of reclaiming VAT via the portal of its own EU Member State. However, a transition period until December 31, 2020 applies. During that transition period, VAT for the year 2019 can still be claimed back via the portal, until September 30, 2020 at the latest.

If you received invoices with UK VAT in 2020, a VAT refund request must be submitted by March 31, 2021.

Source – bdo.nl