Press Release: The European Commission safeguards taxpayers’ right to VAT refunds

On 15 July 2010 the European Commission adopted a proposal to postpone the deadline for the submission of VAT refund requests related to 2009.

In view of the late implementation by Member States of the new VAT refund procedure, which came into force on 1 January 2010, the Commission proposed giving more time to taxpayers to introduce their requests for VAT refund. At the same time, the Commission proposed harmonising some features of the national VAT refund web portals in order to make them more interoperable and accessible for taxpayers.