I’ve done two trips abroad recently and obviously fuelled up in Belgium. I’m planning to reclaim the BTW on the diesel, because this comes to less than 500 euros I’ve been told I have to claim at the end of the Belgian tax year, which is December.
I know regular Euro hauliers can pre-claim the BTW but this doesn’t apply to me, so the question is, has anybody done the BTW claim annually, is there anything likely to get the claim knocked back, and how long does it take them to pay up? The actual claim will be handled by Alfa Transport Service, has anybody used them?
At present, after Alfa’s fees, I’m only looking at around £220, but still it’s better off in my pocket than the Belgian Government’s. 
Alfa should pay you at the end of each month after you have submitted a claim. Normally via your card supplier eg EDC etc.
They say they can only do that if you are reclaiming 500 euros per month or more?
Isn’t it easier to use a shell euro card .
You still have to claim through shell and they take a % it seems like another money making scam to screw the haulier with.
Alfa are doing mine, and they take 10% with a minimum of 50 euros, at the moment I’m only looking at reclaiming 300 euros anyway, although I may do another trip or two before year end which will bump it up. Just wondering if anyone else has done the annual claim thing.
Cold Up North:
You still have to claim through shell and they take a % it seems like another money making scam to screw the haulier with.
so they do all the paper work, chase up the claim and all you have to do is sit there and wait for the cheque- and its a scam? seems to me unless you want to do it all yourself your paying for a service,
So if I do work for a foreign company, you don’t charge vat as long as they provide a valid vat registration number. Why isn’t it the same with fuel? Euroshell have your vat number, they should pass this onto the retailer and be zero vatted
just off topic for one min
just saw Cold Up North’s name after
Reclaiming Belgian VAT (BTW)
and I suddenly thought WTF had Cold Up North got to do with Belgian Vat 
then I realised my mistake 
back to normal then ppl
Hi Harry, you don’t need to use a third party anymore when claiming European vat.
All you need is a valid receipt from your fuel card provider this will have all the correct btw and is recognised by the Belgium authorities and saves you collecting bags of receipts.
As long as it’s over €400 you can submit your claim quarterly ask your accountant about setting up with Hmrc online for European vat reclaim it’s very easy and can save you a lot of money.
Each country insisted that all claims had to be in their own language this is not the case now so no need to pay someone else for something you can do yourself.
In our experience the Belgium authorities will drag this out as long as they can normally 6 months the Dutch will pay within 6 weeks of your claim each country is different but they all pay much quicker now than a few years ago. If your just doing the odd job now and then you can submit this in one claim at the end of the year but Belgium will still drag it out hope this helps