A VAT-registered business that supplies goods and services subject to VAT is entitled to deduct the VAT paid to suppliers on goods and services purchased. However, in your Dutch VAT return, you may only deduct Dutch VAT.
Foreign VAT
By ‘foreign VAT’, we mean VAT that your supplier pays to the tax authorities in a country other than the Netherlands. You are not allowed to deduct that VAT in the Netherlands
Goods and services purchased from a foreign supplier are by no means always subject to foreign VAT. Within the European Union (EU), VAT liability is in many cases reversed to the customer, as the supply or service is an intra-Community one. In such cases, you pay Dutch VAT, which you may deduct in your Dutch VAT return.
Request a refund
You must claim a refund of foreign VAT in the country where the VAT was paid. Within the European Union, this claim must be submitted before 1 October of the year following the year to which the deduction relates. The VAT you paid in another EU Member State in 2018 must be before 1 October 2019 reclaim. The level of leniency shown in the case of requests submitted (slightly) late varies from one Member State to another.
You must submit your refund claim via a special web portal from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration. PLEASE NOTE: to log in to this portal, you will need a different username and password to those used to log in to the business portal, where you can, amongst other things, submit your VAT return. To avoid running out of time, it is advisable to obtain your username and password well before 1 October to apply for.
Your request will be forwarded digitally via the EU portal to the tax authorities of the relevant EU Member State. You will receive a decision from that Member State regarding the VAT amount to be refunded. A few days after that decision, the relevant Member State will pay you the amount specified in the decision.
If you have paid VAT in a country outside the EU, you must check which rules and deadlines that country applies for VAT refunds.