What is Valued Added Tax (VAT)?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services that can add between 5 – 27% to your company’s business travel expenses.
Applicable VAT rates vary from country to country and the tax is recognised under different names, including IVA (Italy), GST (Canada, Australia), MWST (Germany, Austria), TVA (France, Belgium) and MOMS (Scandinavia).

What type of expenses can I claim a VAT refund on?

Businesses can reclaim VAT on a range of eligible expenses, which can be defined in three different groups:

• T&E (Travel & Entertainment Expense) relate to business expenditure incurred by travelling employees while doing business abroad. Typical T&E would be accommodation, meals, transport costs, marketing costs, costs incurred in relation to participating in an event, an exhibition or a conference, etc.
• AP (Account Payable invoices) itemizes a transaction between a buyer and a seller and typical examples would relate to professional services, equipment, consulting & legal fees, research & development.
• IC (Intercompany Expenses) refer to internal transactions between two associated companies who file a consolidated tax return or financial statement. Good examples would be office expenses, legal costs, cross-border sales/indirect goods, administrative/financial support, international project, international infrastructure charges, warranties and so forth.

In all cases, the incurred expenses shall be justified in terms of the nature of the business and this is what normally the tax authority requires the claimant to prove.

Typically, T&Es are paid through the medium of company credit cards, issued for all travelling employees and in some extremely rare cases – in cash. This is why we have designed a solution allowing credit card data transactions to be analysed so that we may provide our clients with a VAT opportunity report, even before we have reviewed the invoices (scans or originals).

AP and Intercompany invoices are normally covered through a bank transfer between the organizations.

What is Valued Added Tax (VAT)?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services that can add between 5 – 27% to your company’s business travel expenses.
Applicable VAT rates vary from country to country and the tax is recognised under different names, including IVA (Italy), GST (Canada, Australia), MWST (Germany, Austria), TVA (France, Belgium) and MOMS (Scandinavia).

What information is needed on a VAT compliant invoice?

Depending on the type of application, an original or scanned invoice is needed to support your claim. Where scanned invoices are acceptable, they should be submitted electronically with the application. All original invoices should be kept as they may be requested at a later date by the member state of refund. If original invoices are required to support your VAT reclaim, they must contain the following criteria:

• Invoice number;
• Invoice date;
• Date of the supply of the goods or the services;
• A detailed description of the goods/services provided – the quantity and nature of the goods supplied or the extent and nature of the services rendered;
• Unit price(s);
• Total net taxable amount per VAT rate;
• The VAT rate applied;
• The VAT amount payable;
• Gross invoice amount.

What is Valued Added Tax (VAT)?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services that can add between 5 – 27% to your company’s business travel expenses.
Applicable VAT rates vary from country to country and the tax is recognised under different names, including IVA (Italy), GST (Canada, Australia), MWST (Germany, Austria), TVA (France, Belgium) and MOMS (Scandinavia).

What is Valued Added Tax (VAT)?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services that can add between 5 – 27% to your company’s business travel expenses.
Applicable VAT rates vary from country to country and the tax is recognised under different names, including IVA (Italy), GST (Canada, Australia), MWST (Germany, Austria), TVA (France, Belgium) and MOMS (Scandinavia).