claim VAT back on fuel in Italy

Fuel falls under the refund scheme, provided Italy permits it

VAT on fuel purchased in Italy for a business trip falls within the cost categories that can be reclaimed via the Dutch Tax Authority portal. Fuel is one of the ten standard categories within the EU refund procedure, and a receipt from an Italian petrol station is automatically recognised and classified as such by the platform's machine. The fact that a cost falls within this category does not in itself mean that Italy refunds the full VAT on it: each refund country applies its own national rules to what it considers deductible, just as the Dutch Tax Authority does for domestic VAT deduction in the Netherlands.

With fuel, the type of vehicle and its use often play a role: some countries treat fuel for passenger cars differently from fuel for vans or lorries, and sometimes a limitation applies as a percentage rather than full deduction. The specific restrictions that Italy applies are described per refund country in the Dutch Tax Authority's Requirements list. For a concrete claim, each receipt is tested against those country-specific rules before being included in a bulk request.

Source: Directive 2008/9/EC and the Requirements list per country

Directive 2008/9/EC provides that an entrepreneur can reclaim VAT charged in another Member State, but leaves the scope of the right to deduction