Reclaiming Foreign VAT on Fuel and Tolls: the 30 September Deadline

Your trucks fuel in Germany, pay tolls in France and go into a workshop in Italy. The foreign VAT sitting inside those invoices is not lost money — it can be reclaimed.

There is one date attached to it: for VAT paid abroad during 2025, the application closes on 30 September 2026. That deadline does not move.

Which money actually comes back?

VAT that your Polish company paid in another EU member state. In road transport the usual items are:

• fuel
• road tolls (myto)
• servicing, repairs, tyres
• parking
• accommodation and meals — often restricted, country by country

Here is the part that catches people out: this VAT is not deducted in your Polish return. Foreign VAT never enters JPK_V7. You ask for it back from the country where you paid it, through a separate application called VAT-REF.

30 September: a deadline with no extension

The application for foreign VAT paid in 2025 must be filed by 30 September 2026. The date is absolute — miss it and the right simply lapses. It does not roll into next year and there is no appeal on the grounds of being late.

Count the weeks. There is a little over a month left.

Who can apply?

• you must be an active VAT payer in Poland
• you must have no seat, fixed establishment or residence in the country where the VAT was paid
• you must not be carrying out exclusively VAT-exempt activity

For a foreign haulier who has opened a Polish company, one detail decides everything: the claim is made by your Polish company, and the invoices must be issued to that company, showing its Polish NIP. An invoice made out to your German entity cannot go into the Polish claim.

The thresholds: EUR 400 and EUR 50

The refund period cannot be shorter than three calendar months, nor longer than one calendar year. The minimum amount depends on which you choose:

Refund period	Minimum VAT claimed
A full calendar year (or the remainder of one)	EUR 50
Three months up to less than a year	EUR 400

Because the annual threshold is only EUR 50, a single truck that crosses the border regularly clears it without difficulty.

Not every invoice carries VAT — check this first

Two traps spoil most claims.

1. German Maut carries no VAT. The German heavy-vehicle toll is outside the scope of VAT, so there is nothing to reclaim on it. Tolls in France, Italy, Austria and Spain do include local VAT. German fuel, on the other hand, is VAT-bearing and belongs in the claim — so sort by line item, not by country.

2. Fuel cards. Operators such as DKV, UTA or E100 either invoice you net — meaning they have already recovered the foreign VAT themselves — or gross. On a net invoice there is nothing left for you to claim, and putting the same cost forward twice puts the whole application at risk.

So the first job is not filling in a form. It is opening the folder and separating which invoices genuinely carry foreign VAT.

How the application is filed

It is entirely electronic: the VAT-REF form, submitted through the e-Deklaracje portal with a qualified electronic signature. The Polish tax administration forwards it to the member state concerned.

One application per country — one for the VAT paid in Germany, another for France. Costs are classified by country and expense code, and scanned copies of invoices are attached above certain values.

When does the money arrive?

The foreign authority must notify its decision within 4 months. If it asks for more information the period stretches to 6 months, and to 8 months on a second request. Payment follows within 10 working days of the decision.

In practice a claim filed in September is usually paid in the first quarter of the following year. Build that into your cash-flow plan — this money will not finance this year’s diesel.

The mistakes that cost the most

• Invoices issued to the driver or without the company’s NIP. Those cannot be claimed, and they usually cannot be corrected after the fact.
• Trying to deduct foreign VAT in the Polish return.
• Falling below the threshold and having the whole application rejected.
• Claiming the same cost both through the fuel-card operator and directly.
• Leaving it to the last week. Obtaining a qualified signature and chasing missing invoices is not a two-day job.

Where to go next

For the whole process of setting up in Poland, start with the A-to-Z guide; for the vehicle side of the tax burden, see registering a truck and vehicle tax.

If your 2025 invoices are still in a folder, open it before September. Write to us or message us on WhatsApp at +48 692 413 475 and we will work out which of them can actually be claimed.