Foreign VAT refund

What it means

Where a Slovak VAT payer pays VAT in another EU country, it cannot deduct it in the Slovak return. It reclaims it through a separate procedure, filed electronically at home.

Typical cases are fuel, road tolls, accommodation, trade fairs and training abroad. What is refundable follows the rules of the country where the tax was paid.

The procedure is for businesses not registered for VAT in the refund country; a registered business deducts that country’s tax in its local return. It is also used by a company that sells into the country only through OSS: it is not registered there, so this is exactly how it reclaims the input tax it paid.

How it works in practice

The claim goes through the tax administration portal by 30 September of the following year. The deadline is absolute: after it the right is gone whatever the reason.

Copies of documents above a set value are attached. They must be in the company’s name with its VAT number, not an employee’s, or the claim is refused.

We collect receipts from trips abroad continuously along with the travel expense claims and sort them by country straight away. Where volumes are larger we do not wait to claim for the whole year in September but also file for shorter periods during the year, so the client gets the money back sooner.

What to watch out for

Each country has its own exclusions: entertainment in one, passenger cars in another. Before a costly trip it is worth knowing what can be reclaimed and what is simply a cost.

The refund country may send follow-up questions or ask for an original document, within a deadline it sets itself. An answer that arrives late means refusal, and the appeal is then lodged in that country under its rules, not through the tax administration at home.