The most common mistake when reclaiming Belgian VAT is that entrepreneurs submit costs that Belgium itself excludes from deduction, while those same costs are ordinarily deductible in the Dutch return. The result is that a request is not processed without questions, the Belgian tax authority asks for additional information, or part of the amount is simply rejected.
In practice, the most frequent problems occur with restaurant costs and vehicle-related costs. An installation company that has a team eat at a trade fair in Antwerp, or a representative who drives through Belgium in a rental car, thinks: this is a business expense, so I'll reclaim that VAT. But it is not the Netherlands that determines whether that VAT is deductible. Directive 2008/9 grants the right to reclaim foreign VAT, but the country of refund determines itself, within that directive, for which cost categories that right actually applies. Belgium applies its own restrictions in doing so, independent of what is customary in the Dutch return.
Why this mistake occurs so frequently
Most entrepreneurs compile their request based on what they are used to in the Netherlands: if the cost item is business-related, then the VAT belongs with it. That is logical, but that is not how the refund system works. Each EU country already has restrictions on certain cost categories for its own domestic VAT deduction, and those same restrictions apply to what a foreign entrepreneur can reclaim through the portal. Anyone who does not look this up in advance simply includes the disputed cost items in the request, with all the resulting delay.
What happens if you make this mistake anyway
The Belgian tax authority assesses a request line by line. This does not mean that an entire request is rejected as soon as one item appears that is not deductible. More often, the permitted items are approved and the disputed items are rejected separately or put up for discussion, with a request for further substantiation. That takes time, and sometimes it results in an outcome lower than the estimate you had counted on.
A partially approved request is not an exception
For entrepreneurs submitting a request for the first time, a partial approval often comes as a surprise. It is not: it is a normal part of how countries of refund assess requests, precisely because each country applies its own rules to what comes in. An approved amount remains an estimate until the country of refund actually pays it out.
How to avoid this mistake
The core of the solution is simple to state, but requires discipline to maintain: check per cost category, before submission, whether Belgium recognises that cost category for refund. This does not mean you need to know all Belgian VAT rules, but it does mean you should not simply assume that a Dutch business cost item is automatically a Belgian refund item. checking per situation what is and is not reclaimed provides a starting point before you start collecting receipts.
If you are in doubt about a specific cost item, it is wiser to put that question to a VAT specialist than to assess the item yourself. Vatea is an operator and information source, not a tax advisor, and complex tax considerations belong with a specialist. What the platform does do is test each submitted cost item against what the country of refund allows according to its own requirements list, before a request goes out. how that assessment per cost category works shows where that control comes from and with what date the source was consulted.
The other side of the same mistake
There is also a reverse variant that occurs just as often: entrepreneurs who, out of caution, omit cost items entirely because they have heard somewhere that Belgium is strict about it. That costs money that could have been reclaimed. Both variants of the error, submitting too much and submitting too little, stem from the same problem: not having a clear picture of what counts towards your specific travel pattern through Belgium and what does not.
Would you like to know what that comes to for your situation? in a few questions see an indication of what you are leaving on the table is free and can be completed without an account. If your question is not among them, you will find in the frequently asked questions about reclaiming VAT more practical answers, without having to create an account first.