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VAT paid in another EU Member State in 2025: refund applications are due by 30 September

Fuel, tolls, hotels, vehicle hire and trade fairs abroad: VAT paid in 2025 in another Member State can be recovered through an electronic refund application filed with the Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle entrate) by Wednesday 30 September 2026. The deadline is a strict time limit, the expense must give a right of deduction in Italy, pro rata included, and the VAT must be refundable under the rules of the foreign State; taxpayers under the Italian flat-rate regime are excluded.

A business or professional with an Italian VAT number that paid VAT in another European Union Member State in 2025, for example on fuel, tolls, hotels, vehicle hire or trade fair admission, can claim a refund from that State by Wednesday 30 September 2026. The application is not filed with the foreign tax authority: it is submitted electronically to the Agenzia delle entrate, which forwards it to the Member State of refund. The deadline is a strict time limit. A business that misses it has no alternative procedure: the foreign VAT remains a cost to the business, and whether it can be deducted as an expense when the refund has been lost through a missed deadline is not settled.

The legislation and the deadline

The Italian rules are set out in Article 38-bis1 of Presidential Decree No 633 of 26 October 1972, inserted by Legislative Decree No 18 of 11 February 2010, which transposed Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008. The operational arrangements are laid down in the measure of the Director of the Agenzia delle entrate of 1 April 2010, ref. No 53471/2010. The deadline derives from Article 15 of the Directive: the application must be submitted to the Member State of establishment by 30 September of the calendar year following the refund period at the latest. For expenses incurred in 2025, the deadline is therefore 30 September 2026, which this year falls on a Wednesday, so the question of carrying it over to the next working day does not arise.

The deadline is a strict time limit. The Agenzia’s answers to frequently asked questions (answer No 37, version of 12 July 2010) state that an application rejected by the system and resubmitted after the deadline is late. The file is deemed submitted on the day the Agenzia finishes receiving it. In addition, an application counts as submitted only if it contains all the information required by Articles 8, 9 and 11 of the Directive: an application lacking the mandatory data does not meet the deadline. There is no grace period, so it is unwise to wait until the last day.

The Agenzia remains in charge of the procedure through the forwarding stage. If the application is admissible, the Agenzia transmits it to the Member State of refund within fifteen days of receipt, as provided for by the 2010 measure. From that point on, all dealings, including requests for clarification, are with the foreign tax authority.

Who can claim a refund and who is excluded

An application may be filed by a taxable person established in Italy that, during the refund period, had neither the seat of its economic activity nor a fixed establishment in the Member State of refund, and made no supplies of goods or services there. The exceptions are exempt transport services and related ancillary services, and supplies for which VAT is payable by the customer under the reverse charge mechanism. Sales and services declared in that State under the OSS or IOSS special schemes do not prevent a refund either: the trader remains entitled to a refund of the VAT on its purchases. By contrast, a business that makes other taxable supplies in the foreign State, and is therefore registered for VAT there, recovers the tax through that State’s VAT return, not through this procedure.

Article 38-bis1(2) lists the cases in which the Agenzia does not forward the application: no business or professional activity during the period; exclusively exempt or out-of-scope supplies without the right of deduction; the small-taxpayer regime (regime dei contribuenti minimi); the special scheme for farmers. The Agenzia notifies its decision not to forward the application within fifteen days of receipt; the decision is reasoned and may be challenged before the tax courts. The same applies where the application fails the formal checks laid down in the 2010 measure.

Taxpayers under the flat-rate regime (regime forfetario) are not mentioned in Article 38-bis1, but they are excluded nonetheless. Article 18(1)(c) of the Directive prohibits the Member State of establishment from forwarding an application from a person covered by the exemption for small enterprises, and the flat-rate regime is Italy’s implementation of that exemption. The same result follows from Article 6 of the Directive, which makes the refund conditional on carrying out transactions that give rise to a right of deduction: under Article 1(58), second sentence, of Law No 190 of 23 December 2014, a flat-rate taxpayer does not deduct VAT on purchases.

Which VAT can be recovered

Two sets of rules determine the refund. The first is the law of the Member State of refund: under Article 5 of the Directive, the entitlement is determined according to the right of deduction as applied in that State. If the foreign legislation excludes or restricts deduction for a category of expenditure, the related VAT cannot be recovered through the refund either. The second is Italian law, which concerns the applicant rather than the individual expense: the purchases must be used for transactions that give rise to a right of deduction in Italy. A business that also makes exempt supplies obtains the refund only up to its deductible proportion, calculated under Italian rules. If, at the end of the year, the final proportion differs from the provisional one, the adjustment must be notified to the Member States of refund during the following calendar year.

In any event, the expense must be related to the business. An employee’s business trip, participation in a trade fair or the performance of an engagement abroad must be documented. This is the same evidence needed to deduct business travel expenses for income tax purposes.

Minimum amounts, refund period and invoices

The refund period may not exceed one calendar year or be less than three calendar months, unless it is the remainder of a calendar year. The minimum amounts are set by Article 17 of the Directive: for a period of less than one year but not less than three months, the VAT claimed must amount to at least EUR 400; for a calendar year or the remainder of a calendar year, to at least EUR 50. A quarterly application for EUR 380 of VAT is therefore inadmissible, whereas the same EUR 380 can be included in the annual application.

For each invoice, the application must state the supplier and its VAT number, the date and number of the invoice, the taxable amount and the VAT expressed in the currency of the Member State of refund, and the code describing the nature of the goods or services. The ten categories set out in Article 9 of the Directive include fuel, hiring of means of transport, road tolls, accommodation, food, drinks and restaurant services, and admission to fairs and exhibitions. The Member State of refund may require an electronic copy of invoices where the taxable amount is EUR 1,000 or more, or EUR 250 or more for fuel. This is an option for that State, not a general obligation. Each State’s choices are shown in the table of preferences published by the Agenzia, which also shows whether the State requires expenditure sub-codes and the business activity code, and in which language the activity and the goods must be described.

After filing: time limits, information requests, appeals

The Member State of refund must reach a decision within four months of receipt. If it requests additional information, the applicant must provide it within one month of receiving the request. The State must then decide within two months of receiving the information, or of the expiry of the one-month period, and in any event has at least six months from receipt of the application. If it requests further information, the decision must be taken within eight months. Payment is made within ten working days of the expiry of the decision period; if payment is late, interest is due under the conditions laid down in Articles 26 and 27 of the Directive. An applicant who fails to reply within the month allowed risks refusal and loses the right to interest.

A refusal is appealed in the Member State of refund, in the form and within the time limits that apply to refund applications from persons established in that State. If that State fails to decide in time, the applicant may use the remedies provided by that State’s law against administrative inaction; where none exist, the failure to decide is deemed a refusal, and the time limits for an appeal should be checked from that point.

Once the Agenzia has forwarded the application to the Member State of refund, the application can be amended by filing a corrective application, which may change all the data except the Member State of refund, the VAT number, the capacity code (codice carica) and the period: invoices may be removed but not added. Invoices omitted from a quarterly application can be recovered through the annual application, to be filed by 30 September. By contrast, according to the Agenzia’s answers, a business that has already filed its annual application cannot file a second one for the same year: the annual application for 2025 should therefore be sent only once all the invoices have been collected.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Since the United Kingdom left the Union, VAT paid in Great Britain cannot be recovered through this procedure. Under the UK rules, the prescribed year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The claim must be made by the following 31 December on form VAT65A, together with a certificate of status issued by the tax authority of the State of establishment. The minimum amounts are GBP 130 for a period of at least three months and GBP 16 for a full year. For expenses incurred between July 2025 and June 2026, the deadline is therefore 31 December 2026. The EU procedure applies instead, but only to goods purchased in Northern Ireland from suppliers identified by the XI prefix, with an application to the Agenzia by 30 September. Under this procedure, invoices that include services are rejected.

From 1 January 2027

Article 38-bis1 remains the provision applicable to this year’s applications. From 1 January 2027 the rules will be set out in Article 117 of the Consolidated VAT Act (testo unico dell’imposta sul valore aggiunto), approved by Legislative Decree No 10 of 19 January 2026, in force since 31 January 2026. The new text reproduces the current framework and no longer lists the small-taxpayer regime among the cases in which an application is not forwarded.

In practice

By 30 September 2026, businesses should:

• identify the foreign invoices for 2025 on which VAT was charged, sorting them by State, since a separate application is filed for each Member State of refund;
• check that the VAT claimed from each State amounts to at least EUR 50 for 2025 and that the VAT on the expense is deductible under that State’s legislation;
• consult the table of preferences to see which invoice copies must be attached and which codes must be stated;
• file the application through Entratel or Fisconline, directly or through an authorised intermediary, stating the business activity code, the IBAN and the BIC;
• check the electronic receipts immediately and reply within one month to any request from the foreign State.

The invoices, the evidence that the expenses relate to the business, the electronic receipts and the correspondence with the foreign authority must be kept. Foreign VAT is not included in the Italian VAT return. Whether the VAT on an individual expense is deductible depends on the law of the Member State of refund; Italian rules matter only for the applicant’s entitlement and for its deductible proportion.

Frequently asked questions

In 2025 I paid EUR 300 of VAT on fuel and tolls in France. Can I still claim a refund?

Yes, through an annual application for 2025 filed with the Agenzia delle entrate by Wednesday 30 September 2026, but only to the extent that French law allows the VAT on those expenses to be deducted. For fuel, the deductibility of the VAT depends on the type of vehicle and fuel and should be checked before the application is completed. For a full year, the minimum amount is EUR 50. If France requires it in the table of preferences, an electronic copy must be attached for fuel invoices with a taxable amount of EUR 250 or more.

I am under the flat-rate regime: can I recover the VAT paid on a hotel in Spain?

No. The Directive excludes persons covered by the exemption for small enterprises, of which the flat-rate regime is Italy’s implementation, and a flat-rate taxpayer does not deduct VAT on purchases. The foreign VAT remains a cost to the taxpayer.

If my application is rejected by the system on 30 September, can I resubmit it the next day?

According to the Agenzia delle entrate, an application rejected by the system and resubmitted after the deadline is late. It is therefore advisable to file it a few days in advance and to check the receipts immediately. The position is different where an application was submitted in time and reached the Member State of refund but could not be read because of a technical malfunction not attributable to the applicant. In its judgment of 12 March 2026, Case C-527/24, concerning a refund claimed from Italy by a person established in another Member State, the Court of Justice held that in such a case the applicant cannot be deprived both of the refund and of access to the courts against the inaction of the authorities of the Member State of refund. The judgment does not concern an application rejected by the system with a receipt, which is still treated as never submitted.

Sources

Article 38-bis1 of Presidential Decree No 633 of 26 October 1972, inserted by Legislative Decree No 18 of 11 February 2010, text in force on 24 September 2026 (Normattiva), applicable until 31 December 2026.

Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008, Articles 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26 and 27.

Article 48 of Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 of 7 October 2010, on the forwarding of refund applications to the Member State of refund.

Agenzia delle entrate, measure of the Director of 1 April 2010, ref. No 53471/2010; answers to frequently asked questions on EU VAT refunds, version of 12 July 2010 (Nos 24-27, 37 and 38); information sheet on refund applications by Italian taxable persons for VAT paid in another EU Member State.

Article 1(58) of Law No 190 of 23 December 2014.

Article 117 of the Consolidated VAT Act, approved by Legislative Decree No 10 of 19 January 2026, applicable from 1 January 2027.

Court of Justice of the European Union, judgment of 12 March 2026, Case C-527/24.

HM Revenue and Customs, VAT Notice 723A, on refunds to businesses not established in the United Kingdom, and guidance on VAT refunds for Northern Ireland.