The situation
An expense ledger export with VAT, uploaded as a spreadsheet
A Dutch-owned trading group has companies in Rotterdam, Poznań and Brno, and your firm prepares their VAT returns. Before year end, the controller wants to know which deductions might not survive an audit. The ledger export has 4,300 expense lines with VAT, from fuel cards to client dinners and Christmas hampers.
Most lines are fine. The work is finding the ones that are not: car costs, entertainment, gifts, staff events, invoices with missing details. Each country restricts different items in different ways, so the same dinner can be deductible in one company and blocked in the next.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Deduction follows use
- Input VAT is deductible to the extent the purchase is used for taxed business supplies, and a proper invoice is normally needed. Member States may keep certain exclusions they had before the VAT Directive, which is one reason restricted categories differ between countries.
- Cars are restricted differently
- Poland limits deduction on passenger cars that are also used privately, unless the car is used only for business and the conditions for that, including a mileage record, are met. The Netherlands allows the deduction and corrects for private use afterwards.
- Entertainment, catering and gifts
- Czech law excludes deduction on entertainment expenses. Polish law excludes deduction on catering and accommodation services bought for the business, with narrow exceptions. Dutch rules correct for business gifts and staff provisions above an annual amount per person.
- Paper problems are risks too
- A deduction can fail for reasons unrelated to the expense: an invoice addressed to the wrong company, a missing VAT number, a supplier that should have applied the reverse charge. The review should flag these separately from the category rules.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Attached: 2026 expense ledgers of our client’s Dutch, Polish and Czech companies. Which lines carry input VAT that may not be deductible, for example cars, client dinners, gifts and staff events? Give the rule for each country and the correction you would suggest.
You start with
An expense ledger export with VAT, uploaded as a spreadsheet
- 01
Upload the ledger
Add the expense ledger export for each company. azta reads it and refers back to the lines it relied on, so every flagged item can be traced.
File upload· Pro - 02
Ask for the restricted categories
Ask which expense types carry restricted input VAT in each country. azta cites the Dutch, Polish and Czech VAT acts and the rules made under them.
Cited research· Free - 03
Check the doubtful lines
For lines that could go either way, such as a staff event or a fair stand with catering, ask about the specific facts. Each answer cites the provision it applies.
Cited research· Free - 04
Draft the list for the controller
Ask for a list by company with line references, the rule and a suggested correction. Edit it in Canvas and export it to Word.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A list of input-VAT items at risk, each with the rule and a suggested correction
What you get
A list of input-VAT items at risk, each with the rule and a suggested correction
Review list · draft
Input VAT review 2026: items to correct or check
Poznań. Lines 112 to 187, restaurant invoices for client meetings: Polish law excludes deduction on catering services. Suggested correction: reverse the input VAT in the next return. Lines 233 to 251, fuel for two passenger cars without a business-only notification: deduction limited, correction calculated in the annex.
Brno. Lines 402 to 419, client entertainment at the trade fair: Czech law excludes deduction on entertainment expenses. Suggested correction: reverse. Line 455, an invoice addressed to the Dutch parent rather than the Brno company: request a corrected invoice before deducting.
Rotterdam. Lines 610 to 655, Christmas hampers and staff events. These count towards the annual amount per person under the Dutch rules on gifts and staff provisions. Suggested correction at year end, once the total per person is known.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
15 minutes a month
At €110 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
- 38
- Capacity at your rate
- €4,158
- More expense ledger reviews a quarter
- 2.1
- Return on Pro
- 12.8×
- 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 demoSources azta searches here
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst
- Dziennik Ustaw
- e-Sbírka
- EUR-Lex · Curia
What stays with you
- Knowing what each expense was for, which the ledger does not say.
- Deciding which corrections to make and when.
- The VAT returns and their sign-off.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta change the bookkeeping?
- No. It reads the uploaded ledger, cites the rules and drafts the list. Corrections are made in your accounting system, by you.
- Can I see which lines it relied on?
- Yes. azta refers back to the passages and lines it used, so you can check each flagged item against the ledger.
- Is the ledger used for training?
- No. Client data is never used for training on any plan, and it stays in the EU/EEA.
