Companies doing business abroad often incur foreign VAT on invoices. These businesses cannot recover VAT through their own domestic returns. For example, a US og Chinees company receiving hotel bills for staff visiting Germany cannot reclaim the German VAT through their local VAT return. VAT Recovery is the process of reclaiming this foreign VAT back.

Click here if you would like a free VAT Recovery expense table

What VAT can be recovered?
Each country implements its own rules on what can be reclaimed from abroad. Typical costs include:

• Hotel and accommodation
• Restaurant meals
• Telephony
• Exhibition, event and conference costs
• Marketing and promotional costs
• Diesel / petrol
• Road tolls
• Car rental
• Equipment and tooling purchases
• Certain professional fees

The rules vary enormously between countries. Above is a summary for major European countries.

Kind regards

TEAM Inter-Distrans