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VAT refunds for traders in EU Member States – basic information

Applications for VAT refunds from foreign traders established in an EU Member State must be submitted in the trader’s respective country of residence (Art.7 of Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008). Each Member State has set up an electronic portal for this purpose. These applications must be submitted by 30 September of the following year in the trader’s respective country of residence.

Preferences allow the Member States to adapt the application process to their specific national situation. The following apply to Germany:

• Use of subcodes required (Art. 9.2): no
• Copies of invoices required (Art. 10): if limits stipulated in Art. 10 are exceeded
• Art. 10 limit values in national currency: €250 / €1,000
• NACE codes required (Art. 11): yes
• Accepted languages (Art. 12): German, English
• Refund period limitations (Art. 16): -/-
• Basis for representation by a third party: authorisation
• Payment to third party: yes, if data is supplied by the applicant

Like the confirmation of receipt, pursuant to Art. 19 of Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 decisions on applications submitted in the respective countries of residence after 1 January 2010 will only be sent electronically as a PDF file to the e-mail address specified in the application.

Notes:

The old electronic access methods, i.e. the form server (FfW), ‘Telemodul’ and form USt1T in the Federal Central Tax Office’s online portal (BOP), cannot be used to submit applications of this type after 1 January 2010. After this date, you should only use the portal provided by your country of residence.
Member States may alter their preferences at short notice. Only the official published versions are legally binding. For this reason, no responsibility is taken for other overviews provided.

Sources of law

• Directive 2008/9/EC
• Tax Administration Act
• Fiscal Code
• Value Added Tax Act
• Value Added Tax Implementation Order

Notes:

The Federal Central Tax Office accepts no responsibility for the completeness and correctness of the statutory provisions provided here. The editorial staff makes every effort to incorporate changes in the law as quickly as possible. However, since it takes time to update the information, particularly in the case of major changes, no guarantee can be made that the statutory provisions provided reflect the current legal situation at any one time.
The same applies to the content of pages that have not been created by the Federal Central Tax Office, but to which links are provided.
Only the versions published in the relevant official journal (usually the Federal Law Gazette or the Federal Bulletin) are authoritative.

Questions

Contact the competent authority for information about the electronic portal for your country of residence. (  Foreign authority (PDF, 58 KB, barrier-free⁄barrier-low file))