Recovery of value-added tax paid in 2017

If you are a business owner who in 2017 made value-added tax payments in an EU Member State other than the Netherlands without having tax filing liability there, you have the option of recovering the value-added tax. You have until the first of October 2018 – via the Tax and Customs Administration’s web site – to submit your application in respect of 2017. Make sure you apply in good time in order not to risk the tax service declining to entertain our application altogether. You will need particular log-on details when filing your application for recovery of value-added tax you paid in another EU Member State. If it is your first-ever application, this will involve you having to apply for your log-on details, which according to the Tax and Customs Administration itself may take them up to four weeks to generate and dispatch to you.

Conditions governing value-added tax recovery application

The following conditions are to be met by anyone who wishes to recover value-added tax paid in another EU Member State:

• your business should be based in the Netherlands;
• your business lacks value-added tax filing liability in the EU Member State for which you are seeking to recover value-added tax (if your business does have tax filing liability in the relevant other EU Member State, all you need to do to recover any value-added tax paid locally is deduct the relevant amount as input tax in your tax return);
• The value-added tax you are seeking to recover should pertain to supplies and services you have used in connection with value-added tax charged business operations.

Scenarios in which your application for recovery will be denied

The following scenarios will involve your application for recovery of value-added tax paid in another EU Member State being denied:

• you lack the status of entrepreneur having value-added tax liability;
• your business engages in value-added tax exempt activities only;
• you have been issued with a release from administrative duties;
• although your business comes under the Tax and Customs Administration’s agricultural regime, it does not comply with the terms and conditions governing the (value-added tax) recovery scheme for agricultural products.

Processing of applications

The tax authorities of the EU Member State where you paid the value-added tax you are now seeking to recover will decide on your application within a four-month term. They may approve some or all of your application, or they may deny it. The refund you are entitled to where your application is approved will reach you within no more than ten working days of the date of expiry of the aforementioned four-month term.

Appendices to application

You may find – depending on which EU Member State it is you are seeking value-added tax recovery from – that your application needs to be accompanied by (copies of) invoices or import documents. The Tax and Customs Administration’s web site features a summary of requirements per individual EU Member State. In so far as your application pertains to a credit note, please make sure that you place one minus sign (dash) each immediately in front of the invoiced amount and the value-added tax charge, without including a space between the minus sign and the amount. If your application includes a credit note for an invoice you had already applied for recovery for at an earlier juncture, make sure to account for it as part of your next application for value-added tax recovery.

Dutch version: Buitenlandse BTW uit 2017 terugvragen