The situation
A year of fuel, toll, repair and parking invoices from two other member states
A Slovak haulier from Žilina runs forty trucks through Germany and Austria every week. Fuel cards, tolls, repairs and parking leave a stack of foreign invoices each quarter, and last year’s refund claim to Austria came back partly refused. The finance team wants a note on what to claim, from which country, and why some invoices failed.
The refund procedure is the same across the EU, but each country applies its own deduction rules to the expenses, and the invoices come from fuel-card companies, toll operators and workshops in different forms. The hours go on separating invoices that qualify from invoices that never will, before the deadline rather than after the refusal.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Claim through your own country’s portal
- An EU business that is not established in the refund country and, with limited exceptions, makes no supplies there claims under the EU refund directive, through the electronic portal of its own member state. The refund country decides the claim.
- The deadline is 30 September
- A claim for a calendar year must be submitted by 30 September of the following year. Claims can also cover shorter periods of at least three months, subject to minimum amounts.
- The refund country’s deduction rules apply
- VAT is refunded only to the extent it would be deductible in the refund country and relates to the claimant’s taxable activities. Restrictions in that country’s law apply to the claim as they would to a local business.
- Not every road charge carries VAT
- Some road charges are public levies without VAT, and invoices must show the details the refund country requires. The research confirms which charges carry VAT in each country and what fuel-card invoices must show.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Slovak haulier with fuel-card, toll, repair and parking invoices from Germany and Austria for 2026. How do we reclaim the VAT, by when, which expenses qualify in each country, and why might Austria have refused part of last year’s claim? Invoices and the refusal attached.
You start with
A year of fuel, toll, repair and parking invoices from two other member states
- 01
Upload the invoices
Add the fuel-card statements, toll invoices and workshop bills, and last year’s refusal. azta reads each document and refers back to it.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research the refund rules
Ask how the refund works for each country. azta cites the EU refund directive and the German and Austrian VAT rules on deduction.
Cited research· Free - 03
Flag the invoices that fail
Ask azta to go through the invoices and flag those missing a required detail or carrying no VAT, with the reason for each.
File upload· Pro - 04
Draft the refund note
Ask for a note with the route, the deadline, the claimable expenses and the invoices to fix. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A note on the refund route, the deadline, what qualifies and which invoices to fix
What you get
A note on the refund route, the deadline, what qualifies and which invoices to fix
Refund note · draft
Reclaiming German and Austrian VAT for 2026
Route. We claim through the Slovak electronic portal under the EU refund procedure, with one claim for Germany and one for Austria. The deadline for the 2026 claims is 30 September 2027. From next year we propose quarterly claims, subject to the minimum amounts.
What qualifies. Fuel, repairs and parking for the trucks relate to our taxable transport services, and the VAT on them is refundable subject to each country’s deduction rules. Charges levied without VAT cannot be claimed, and invoices without the required details will be refused.
Last year’s Austrian refusal. The refused items were fuel-card statements without a valid invoice behind them. This year we will obtain the invoices from the fuel-card company before filing. We will also check whether the refusal can still be challenged.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
24 minutes a month
At €70 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 16
- Capacity at your rate
- €1,134
- More foreign VAT refund reviews a quarter
- 0.7
- Return on Pro
- 3.5×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoWhat stays with you
- Filing the claims through your tax authority’s portal.
- Chasing missing invoices from fuel-card companies and workshops.
- Deciding whether to challenge a refusal.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta file the refund claim?
- No. It researches the rules, checks the invoices you upload and drafts the note. Filing stays with you.
- What about a haulier from outside the EU?
- Businesses established outside the EU use a different procedure, with its own conditions and deadlines. Ask with the claimant’s country and azta researches that route.
- Can it tell which invoices will be refused?
- It flags invoices that miss a requirement it can see, such as a missing VAT amount or the wrong customer name, and says why. The refund country decides the claim.
