How do I submit a VAT refund request?

Submission takes place via the Tax Administration's digital portal

A request for VAT refund from another EU country is submitted via the Tax Administration's refund portal, not directly to the tax authority of the country where the costs were incurred. In that portal, for each refund country and each period, you specify which costs are involved, with the corresponding invoices and receipts as supporting documentation. The Tax Administration checks the request on a number of basic points and then forwards it to the tax authority of the country where the VAT was paid — that authority ultimately determines whether, and how much, will be granted.

What changes here is mainly wHo logs in. An entrepreneur can log in himself with his own login credentials, but anyone who outsources the submission to an intermediary works with a separate set of login credentials specifically intended for intermediaries. Those login credentials must be requested separately from the Tax Administration, and the intermediary can only submit on behalf of an entrepreneur once that authorisation is arranged. For the entrepreneur himself, nothing changes in the portal — it remains the same system, only with a different party filling it in.

Where this is stated: the portal page and the application form for intermediaries

That refund requests run via the Tax Administration's digital portal and are forwarded from there to the refund country is stated on the Tax Administration's page about reclaiming VAT from other EU countries and on the portal page itself (eubtw.belastingdienst.nl/netp/). That an intermediary requires separate login credentials for this, and that these must be requested separately, follows from the Tax Administration's form "Application for login credentials for VAT refund from other EU countries for intermediaries".