What a receipt needs on it to reclaim BTW

To reclaim BTW on a business purchase you need a valid invoice. A card statement line is not one. Neither, in many cases, is the slip the terminal prints — and that gap is where a surprising amount of reclaimable VAT quietly disappears.

This is the practical version: what the document has to carry, when a shorter version is acceptable, and the everyday categories where the answer is simply no.

The full invoice

The details required on a VAT invoice are harmonised across the EU by the VAT Directive and applied in the Netherlands by the Belastingdienst. In practice a compliant invoice shows:

The supplier’s name and address, and their BTW identification number. Your business name and address as the customer. The invoice date, and a sequential invoice number. A description of the goods or services and the quantity supplied. The date of supply, where it differs from the invoice date. The amount excluding VAT, the VAT rate applied, and the VAT amount itself.

The two that go missing most often on a card receipt are the supplier’s BTW number and your business name as the customer. A terminal slip is printed before anyone knows who the customer is, so it usually carries neither.

The simplified invoice

For small amounts the requirements relax. Where the total including VAT does not exceed €100, a simplified invoice is acceptable: the date, the supplier’s identity, what was supplied, and the VAT due. Your own details are not required.

This is why a €14 lunch receipt is usually fine as printed, and a €900 hotel folio is usually not. The threshold is also why “just take a photo of everything” is reasonable advice at the low end and insufficient at the high end: above €100 somebody has to ask the supplier for a proper invoice, and that ask is far easier on the day than three weeks later.

Where you cannot reclaim, whatever the paperwork

Some categories are excluded or restricted regardless of how good the invoice is. These are the ones that come up constantly on corporate cards:

Food and drink consumed on the premises of a hospitality business — restaurant meals, café bills, the hotel breakfast — is excluded from input VAT deduction in the Netherlands. The cost is still deductible for corporate income tax; the BTW is not reclaimable.

Staff benefits and gifts are subject to a separate annual threshold under the BUA rules. Below it, deduction is generally preserved; above it, previously deducted VAT has to be corrected at year end.

Mixed business and private use — the classic case being a car — requires apportionment rather than a full reclaim.

Purchases from suppliers outside the Netherlands often carry no Dutch BTW at all. Reverse charge, EU acquisitions, and foreign VAT each follow their own route, and foreign VAT is generally not reclaimed through your Dutch return.

What this means for how you collect receipts

Three habits recover most of the leakage, and none of them require software.

Ask for the invoice at the point of sale whenever the total is above €100 — say “factuur op bedrijfsnaam” and give the company details. Capture the document the same day, while the supplier will still reissue it without a discussion. And record business purpose alongside the amount, because the deductibility question for meals, entertainment, and gifts depends on what the spend was for, not what it cost.

Where software helps is in making the capture immediate and the storage durable. Dutch businesses must retain their administration for seven years — ten for records relating to immovable property — and a digital copy is acceptable provided it is a faithful reproduction and remains legible and accessible for the full period. Rexa runs OCR on each receipt to read the supplier, total, date, and VAT lines, matches it to the card charge, and keeps the file encrypted in the EU for the retention window.

None of that decides deductibility for you. It just means that when the question is asked, the document is there to answer it.

General information, not tax advice. VAT treatment depends on your specific circumstances and the rules change — confirm your position with your accountant or the Belastingdienst before relying on it.