VAT recovery across every invoice, with each claim built, checked twice and filed before its deadline
VAT never claimed found in every invoice, and claimed back before the deadline.
See one case, screen by screen ↓VAT Recovery is software that audits a group's AP invoices and expense receipts for VAT never claimed and VAT claimed in error, and builds the reclaims. Six agents read every invoice, apply each country's rules, ask suppliers for corrected invoices, prepare corrections, check each other and build each foreign refund claim before its deadline, while the VAT manager approves and signs.
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A group pays VAT on supplier invoices and employee expenses in many countries, and much of it is never claimed. The ERP is set up for domestic VAT, so a German invoice received by a Dutch company is posted with a “no input tax” code and its VAT goes to cost. The expense tool maps each expense type once, often with one country's rules for all. And a foreign refund has its own form, its own minimums and a fixed date: under the EU refund directive the claim for a year is due by 30 September of the next, and after that the money is lost.
The same invoices hide the opposite risk. VAT is claimed that the country blocks — UK client entertainment, half the VAT on a leased car, French staff hotels, Belgian restaurants — and in an audit that becomes a liability. Today an advisory review samples the invoices now and then, or a contingency provider takes a share of each refund and is paid on refunds, not on the over-claims it finds.
Estimated split for a four-year look-back across a group's entities, by hand and with the solution.
Six agents read every invoice, apply each country's rules, chase suppliers, check each other and build the claims; the VAT manager approves.
Kestrel & Vane Group runs its first four-year look-back: Jan 2022 – Sep 2026, 11 countries, AP invoices from SAP S/4HANA and receipts from the expense tool. Fiona Clarke, VAT Manager for EMEA in Rotterdam, works with six agents in plain words — she asks, they answer with the source, and nothing is claimed, corrected or sent until she decides. Here it is, screen by screen, in the working solution.
The look-back finished on Friday: 186,240 invoices and receipts read. Her home screen shows four numbers — €612K never claimed, €469K ready to claim, €48.1K over-claimed to correct, €72.1K waiting on suppliers — and what needs her, in order. Beside it the agents speak first: the Filing agent has four claims ready, €297,050.00, and the Rules agent has traced the biggest leak to one setting.
Filing agent: “Four claims are ready for you, €297,050.00. Start with Germany: €148,300.00, every check passed.”
Each of the 9,314 tiles is 20 invoices, one band per country, coloured by what the agents found: 5,007 not claimed (€469K), 7,100 missing details, 1,486 over-claimed, 4,441 too late, 168,206 fine. Above it, each country's total adds up to €612,040: Germany €205K, France €118K, the UK €96.4K. One tile is pinned: the Hamburg event, €7,030.
“Each tile is 20 invoices, coloured by what the agents found.”
Fiona asks beside the mosaic. The Rules agent answers with three citations: AP posted the invoice with tax code V0 and the expense type “Customer hospitality”, so €7,030.00 of VAT went to cost. Germany refunds VAT on business hospitality when the guests are recorded, and the guest list is attached. One click opens the invoice.
Every answer points to the posting, the rule and the document it rests on.
Venue hire, catering for 240 guests and event technology, net €37,000.00, VAT at 19% €7,030.00, with the VAT line highlighted on the invoice. The Reader agent shows each field it read and its confidence (99% here); the posting shows SAP document 5100448213, tax code V0 and account 640300 Customer events. The finding goes into the German claim under code 9. Fiona can accept, change or reject it.
“The agents propose; nothing is claimed or corrected until you decide.”
When an invoice is wrong or lacks a detail a claim needs, the Validity agent writes to the supplier. Rheinland Messebau charged German VAT on stand construction where the reverse charge applies: 6 invoices, €9,640.00. The request is in German, with an English summary below it, from the template Tomasz Nowak approved. So far 268 suppliers were asked, 96 sent corrected copies, adding €19,840 to claims.
“Reminders go out after 10 working days, the AP lead is told after 20.”
The same scan found VAT claimed in error on 1,486 invoices, grouped by rule: UK client entertainment (€11,240.00), UK leased cars claimed at 100%, French staff hotels (€9,870.00), and 58 German receipts over €250 without our name in the 2025 claim. Each group carries its route — the next return, the October CA3, or withdrawing receipts before the authority decides.
“The UK entertainment group is above €10,000, so Marco Bellini approves it after you.”
Each miss is traced to the setting that caused it, with its owner. Tax code V0 “no input tax” is the default for foreign suppliers in company code NL10: 2,140 invoices, €318,400, owner Tomasz Nowak. The expense type “Customer hospitality” is set as not recoverable in every country: 1,206 invoices, €96,800, owner Hannah Lindqvist. One click sends each fix to its owner.
“Fixing the cause stops the leak; each fix goes to its owner, who makes the change in their system.”
The nearest is the Dutch supplementary return on 31 Oct, €31,960. The one that loses money is 7 Feb 2027: after it, £18,930 of UK input tax from Oct–Dec 2022 can no longer be claimed, and the list marks it “Money expires”. Below the list, €71,400 of foreign refunds for 2022–2024 that were never filed is shown with its countries, so the cause is fixed rather than hidden.
“The Filing agent tells you at 60, 30 and 10 days, and files the moment you approve.”
Kestrel & Vane Nederland B.V. claims German VAT for 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2026: 1,284 invoices in nine codes, from fuel to admission to fairs, with 186 copies of invoices of €1,000 or more attached and 41 invoices held back for corrected copies. The Second-check agent recomputed every line without seeing the first answer and found 3 differences; the one over €50, a forwarder's invoice that included import duty, went to Sofie de Vries, who agreed with the second check.
Checks: no German VAT registration · at least three months · above the €400 minimum · filed well before 30 Sep 2027.
Fiona chooses reason C1, “Claim as prepared”, and ticks the e-signature in her name. The Filing agent builds the electronic claim and files it through the Belastingdienst portal, with receipt BLD-VAT-2026-1014-48284; the decision clock starts, due Sun 14 Feb 2027. Her approval and the filing are written to the sealed audit trail.
“I approve this claim as Fiona Clarke, VAT Manager, EMEA — e-signature.”
The same four years of invoices, seen by five of the people who carry them — what the work looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents read every invoice, apply each country's rules, chase suppliers, check each other and build the claims; the VAT manager approves.
Reads every invoice and receipt from AP, the expense tool, the archive and e-invoices: supplier, VAT numbers, date, lines, rates, VAT and currency, each with its place on the page and a confidence. Merges duplicates and keeps non-invoices out.
Applies each country's recovery rules and blocked categories, the claimant's registrations and the route — domestic return or foreign refund — and traces each miss to the tax code or expense type that caused it.
Checks each invoice for the details a claim needs, writes to suppliers for corrected copies in their language, reads the replies and re-checks what comes back before it joins the next claim.
Finds VAT claimed that the country's rules block, groups it by rule and prepares the correction: the amount, the route and the return or claim it goes on.
Recomputes every claim line from the source passage without seeing the first result, and reports each difference with both readings.
Builds each claim by the codes of the refund form with the invoice copies attached, watches every deadline and the authority's four-month clock, and files once the claim is approved.
Approves every claim; the controller co-signs large ones. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Every screen carries a conversation with the agent that owns it. Ask in plain words, or tell it what to do; each answer points to its source.
What should I do first?
Approve the German claim: €148,300.00, the largest, all checks passed, second check done. Then the Dutch supplementary return, due with the Q3 return on 31 Oct, and the UK late claim. The corrections can follow this week.
Why was the Hamburg event not claimed?
AP posted it with tax code V0 and the expense type “Customer hospitality”, so €7,030.00 of VAT went to cost. Germany refunds VAT on business hospitality when the guests are recorded; the guest list is attached.
How much did we over-claim, and how risky is it?
€48,060.00 in 14 groups. The largest: UK client dinners (€11,240.00) and French staff hotels (€9,870.00). All are within the limits for correcting on the next return, and two sit in the 2025 refund claims, which we can still withdraw before the authorities decide.
Did any agent act without a person?
No claim, correction or supplier template went out without a person: agents read, check, draft and build; every filing and correction entry follows a signed approval. Reminders use the template Tomasz Nowak approved.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The rules each invoice is checked against and the limits that route work to a person are settings, approved and logged.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Rules by country | 11 countries, each with its legal source | Blocked or limited categories, route and deadline per country; a change is a draft until the VP Tax approves it |
| Ask a person below this confidence | 90% | Any percentage |
| Ask suppliers for a corrected copy from | €25 of VAT | Any amount |
| Finance controller also approves claims above | €250,000 | Any amount |
| Finance controller also approves corrections above | €10,000 | Any amount |
| Second-check differences resolved by the agent up to | €50 | Any amount; above it a person decides |
| Deadline reminders | 60, 30 and 10 days before | Any ladder of days, in the app, by e-mail or in Teams |
| Supplier reminder | After 10 working days; AP lead after 20 | Any number of working days |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (Directive 2008/9/EC, Art. 15 — EU refund claims due 30 September of the following year — and Art. 19 — four months for the refund country to decide; a listed VAT reclaim provider's February 2024 stock-exchange release — a fee per invoice plus 20% of refunds, vendor figure). People, companies, suppliers, invoices and amounts named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
VAT Recovery is software that audits a group's AP invoices and expense receipts for VAT never claimed and VAT claimed in error, and builds the reclaims. Six agents read every invoice, apply each country's rules, ask suppliers for corrected invoices, prepare corrections, check each other and build each foreign refund claim before its deadline, while the VAT manager approves and signs.
The Reader agent reads every invoice and receipt and the posting behind it; the Rules agent applies the country's recovery rules and the claimant's registrations. VAT that is recoverable but went to cost — for example foreign VAT posted with a “no input tax” code — is marked not claimed, with the rule and the posting cited, and traced to the setting that caused it.
Yes. The same scan finds VAT claimed although the country blocks it, such as UK business entertainment or French staff hotels, grouped by rule. The Correction agent prepares each correction with its amount and route — the next return, or withdrawing items from a refund claim before the authority decides — and nothing is corrected until a person approves.
Every finding carries its last day to claim. The Filing agent lists each date with the money that depends on it, reminds the VAT manager 60, 30 and 10 days before, puts money about to expire first and files once the claim is approved. After filing it watches the authority's four-month decision clock.
The Validity agent names exactly what is missing and writes to the supplier for a corrected copy, in the supplier's language, from a template AP approved. It reads the reply, re-checks the corrected copy and adds it to the next claim, with reminders after 10 working days and the AP lead told after 20.
Yes. The agents read, check, draft and build; they never file without approval. The VAT manager approves every claim and correction with a reason code and an e-signature, the finance controller also approves large amounts, readings below 90% confidence go to a person, and every step is on a sealed audit trail.
Yes. Each country's blocked and limited categories, routes and deadlines, the confidence threshold, the supplier-request minimum, the co-approval limits and the reminders are all settings. A change to the rules is a draft until the VP Tax approves it.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your entities and registrations, your country rules and a sample of your invoices — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own invoices first.
Every country tested, every field traced, the return ready months before the deadline.
1-min demoE-Invoicing ComplianceEvery invoice checked before it leaves, and every rejection fixed the same day.
1-min demoTransfer Pricing DocumentationEvery margin tested before the year closes, and every file ready inside 30 days.
1-min demoWe'll run VAT Recovery on a sample of your own AP invoices and expense receipts.