VAT on fuel that you purchase abroad is the foreign VAT that appears on the fuel price and that you as a Dutch business operator cannot offset in your own VAT return. You can request this VAT back separately from the country where you refueled, through the foreign VAT recovery scheme. What is special about fuel is that within this scheme, this cost category usually has the lowest threshold of all ten cost categories: while for hotels, trade fairs or larger purchases recovery is often only possible from a higher amount per invoice, virtually every receipt counts for fuel at much lower amounts.
This makes fuel in practice the most common and most accessible cost category within the recovery scheme. A business operator who crosses the border a few times a year often refuels more frequently than he stays overnight or exhibits at a trade fair, and precisely because every fuel purchase counts, it quickly adds up. This is precisely why fuel is the cost category for many SMEs where most recoverable VAT is found, even though a single fuel receipt of thirty euros seems insignificant in itself.
Why fuel is treated differently from other cost categories
The foreign VAT recovery directive gives member states scope to determine per cost category from what amount a separate invoice is still interesting enough to process. For cost categories with typically high amounts per invoice, such as hotel stays or large purchases, this threshold is logically higher. Fuel falls into a different category: it involves smaller amounts that occur frequently, and member states often apply no threshold or a much lower threshold per receipt.
What this means in detail varies by country, and the exact amounts and conditions are set out per recovery country in the requirements published by the Dutch Tax Authority. For those who want to see how this varies by country, that is a separate research question at a later stage; here it is about the principle that fuel is consistently treated more favorably than most other cost categories.
What a lower invoice threshold means in practice
The practical consequence is that for fuel it matters less whether a receipt is small in itself. For a cost category with a high threshold, it makes little sense to keep an invoice for a few euros, because it won't count anyway. Fuel is different: it is precisely the small, frequent fuel receipts that together often form the largest item within a recovery request.
An illustrative example
An installer who refuels monthly in Germany and Belgium for material transport collects dozens of small receipts over a year. Viewed individually, none of those receipts seems worth processing separately. Added together, and assessed against what the recovery country allows, it can however form a considerable part of what can be claimed in foreign VAT over a whole year. This is also the reason why a calculator that provides an estimate based on a few questions often shows fuel first and as the largest item; anyone who wants to see this for their own situation can calculate an estimate in a few questions.
What this means for the receipt flow
Because virtually every fuel receipt can be relevant, the way receipts are received and recorded is particularly important. A fuel receipt that remains in the car or fades before it is processed is a lost piece of a recovery that would otherwise have counted. How this flow of receipts is practically organized, tested per country and bundled into a request is described on the page about how the processing of receipts into a request works.
Whether fuel for a specific business is actually the largest cost category depends on how much business driving is done, in which countries, and how that compares to other costs such as accommodation or trade fair attendance. This varies by company and is not a fixed outcome; an overview of the various situations involved can be found on the page on reclaiming VAT by situation.
Form your own picture
Fuel is therefore not simply one of the ten cost categories, but often the cost category where low barriers to entry work most in the entrepreneur's favour. Precisely because the threshold is low, it pays to keep even small fuel receipts, even if it does not feel like a priority at the moment.
Anyone who wants to see what this means approximately for their own business can, without obligation, fill in the free calculator or browse the knowledge base to get an idea first before anything is finalised.