cáin bhreiseáin a iarraidh ar ais ar tacsaí an Ghearmáin

Taxi costs in Germany fall under the travel expenses category

VAT on a taxi ride in Germany may be eligible for refund, as part of the cost category for travel and accommodation expenses that Directive 2008/9/EC uses for foreign VAT refunds. A taxi receipt is therefore in principle comparable to a hotel overnight stay, a fuel purchase or a toll ticket: these are all business expenses incurred in Germany on which German VAT has been charged, yet that VAT cannot be deducted in the Dutch return because the business operator is not established there.

Whether a taxi ride is actually eligible for refund depends on what Germany allows as the refund country for this cost category. Not every EU country permits every cost category in full — some countries exclude certain categories or impose additional requirements on the receipt, such as mention of the VAT number of the service provider or a minimum amount per receipt. For Germany, this is specifically set out in the Requirements list of the Tax Administration. A taxi receipt that meets the stated requirements is included in the request sent via the Dutch portal to the German tax authority; if that is not the case, that cost item is not included or the request risks being rejected on that part.

Where this comes from: Directive 2008/9 and the Requirements list

The legal basis for claiming back foreign VAT on business travel expenses, including taxi rides, lies in Directive 2008/9/EC, which establishes the right for a business operator established in an EU member state to claim back VAT from another EU country via the digital portal of its own tax authority. The precise implementation per cost category — which expenses Germany permits and under what conditions — is not set out in the directive itself, but in the Requirements for VAT refund requests from other EU countries that the Tax Administration publishes per country. For a complete picture of how a specific country treats a cost category, the Taxes in Europe Database of the European Commission is a supplementary source.