Germany runs a formal refund procedure for businesses not established in the EU. Claims are typically submitted for a calendar year, with strict windows after the year ends. Getting the paperwork right the first time saves months of back-and-forth with the tax office.
What expenses often qualify
- Hotel accommodation for business travel (subject to caps and invoice details).
- Trade fairs, training, and certain professional fees invoiced with German VAT.
- Some goods purchased and exported according to customs rules—each case needs validation.
Documentation you should expect to show
Original invoices (or compliant electronic equivalents), proof of payment where required, and evidence that the expense relates to your business activity outside Germany. German authorities are precise about invoice fields; missing VAT IDs or incorrect dates are frequent rejection reasons.
Deadlines in practice
Non-EU refund claims generally relate to a full calendar year and must be submitted by 30 June of the following year. Internal finance calendars should treat Q1 as the hard push to assemble prior-year claims—not the week before the deadline.
Automation with SOVAT
SOVAT maps German rules onto your QuickBooks data, flags invoices that look eligible, and highlights gaps (e.g. missing supplier VAT ID) before submission. You get a single workflow instead of a parallel project per country.