The short answer
Directive 2008/9 sets four months as the main deadline from the moment the refund country receives your request: a decision must be issued within that period. If the country requests additional information, this deadline shifts to a maximum of eight months after receipt. In Italy's case, this second scenario occurs regularly in practice, meaning a request that could theoretically be processed within four months often remains pending for longer.
The delay is usually not in the law itself, but in its implementation: an incomplete invoice, a question not answered clearly the first time, or a file submitted under the wrong expense category. Those who understand this cannot guarantee the processing time, but can at least understand where the time gets spent.
What the directive itself provides
The procedure runs through the Dutch Tax Administration, which receives the request, checks it for completeness, and forwards it to the Italian tax authority. From the moment Italy receives the request, the four-month main deadline begins. Within this period, Italy can decide to request additional information — for example, further clarification on an invoice or a copy of a document that was not included. From that point, a new deadline applies, and the directive stipulates that the final decision must be made no later than eight months after the original receipt.
These are deadlines for the decision, not for payment. Once a request is approved, payment typically follows shortly thereafter, but that too is at the discretion of the refund country and not something that can be promised in advance.
Where it gets stuck in practice
Three points come up more frequently with requests to Italy than with other countries.
The first is the invoice itself. Italian suppliers use their own invoice format, and not every document that appears complete at first glance meets what the Italian tax authority accepts as proof. A missing piece of information on the invoice is often precisely the reason for an additional request, and every additional request costs time — not only the time to respond, but also the time the refund country takes to reassess.
The second point is the expense category. Requests are classified into one of the ten EU expense categories, and a classification that does not quite align with what Italy permits in that area is more likely to trigger a question back than immediate approval. This is exactly where the classification by expense category and the assessment of what the refund country allows come together in practice; for more information on this, see the breakdown by expense category on the page on VAT refunds by situation.
The third point is simply the timing of submission. A request filed just before the four-month period of the refund country begins sits at the back of a queue that is not processed quickly anyway. Early submission does not change the legal deadline, but it does limit how many additional questions can still come back before the final date approaches.
What this means for planning
For a business doing this for the first time, the practical conclusion is simple: do not count on four months, but allow for a longer processing time as soon as there is even a single unclear point in the file. This is not a reason to give up on reclaiming — the amount a business forgoes this way is usually not small — but it is a reason to provide the file as completely as possible before it goes to Italy.
Whether a request for your situation is likely to proceed smoothly or with a supplementary question cannot be said in general; it depends on the invoices, the expense category and the amount. If you want to know where that process comes from and how the submission actually works, you can read about it on the page explaining how submission works.
Get an impression yourself
To see how much there is to claim for your business when traveling to Italy, and whether it is worth going through the process, you just need to answer a few questions. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing: you enter how often and for what purpose you travel to Italy for business, and you immediately receive an indication in euros via the free calculator. If you still have doubts about the steps after that, you will find an overview of frequently asked questions on the page with answers to practical questions.