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Function documentationEntry of VAT Refund Details Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

You can use this function to enter additional details for the refund of value-added tax when entering receipts. Receipt entry supports this function only for receipts from abroad.

This enhancement to receipt entry meets the requirements of the EU COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 that stipulates detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State. This EU directive stipulates that a refund application must contain certain details for each invoice from a Member State of refund. These include, for example, the VAT registration number of the supplier of goods or services (or the tax reference number of the supplier as allocated by the Member State of refund) and a code that reflects the nature of the acquired goods and provided services.

Integration

This enhancement to receipt entry is available in the following user interfaces:

  • Transactions for travel expenses in SAP GUI (on the VAT Details tab page under additional receipt information

  • Applications for expense reports in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface (dialog box VAT Details)

Activating VAT refunds for a specific trip provision variant has the following effects within that trip provision variant:

  • You can no longer use the Travel Manager (TRIP) to enter travel expenses or expense reports with this trip provision variant. Instead, use the Travel Expense Manager (PR05).

  • You can only enter domestic receipts in the Travel Calendar. The Travel Calendar does not display the VAT details in the additional receipt information. If an expense report already contains receipts from abroad, these are displayed in the Travel Calendar.

    To enter trips with receipts from abroad, use the Travel Expense Manager or, when using the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface, the Expense Report or the Express Expense Sheet.

Prerequisites

You have activated VAT refunds for your trip provision variant in Customizing for Travel Expenses under   Master Data   Control Parameters for Travel Expenses   Define Global Settings  .

Features

When a user enters an international trip country when entering a receipt, the system automatically prompts the user for the details for the VAT refund. When saving such a receipt, the system checks whether the receipt contains the required information for the refund of value-added tax (see the "Status" section).

In your trip provision variants, for each trip country you can define how the system processes the VAT refund information (in Customizing for Travel Expenses under   Master Data   Advanced Treatment of Value-Added Tax   Define Processing of VAT Amount in Receipts per Country  ):

  • If you make no setting for a trip country or you select the setting Do Not Submit; Post According to Tax Code, the system posts the receipts from this country with the tax code, but does not create a declaration with the VAT refund details. This is the same as the standard procedure used when VAT refunds is not activated.

  • If you select the setting Submit; Post According to Tax Code, the system creates a declaration with the VAT refund details, taking the tax amount into consideration. When posting the document to Financial Accounting, the system calculates the tax amount according to the tax code.

  • If you select the setting Submit; Post the Amount Entered for a trip country, the system creates a declaration with the VAT refund details, taking the tax amount into consideration. When posting the document to Financial Accounting, the system calculates the tax amount according to the tax amount that is entered.

Although the setting Submit; Post According to Tax Code allows you to report input tax amounts, you cannot post these amounts to tax accounts as expenses. This is because, at the time of posting, one does not yet know whether a refund of the input tax will indeed take place. In this case, you would select a tax code with a rate of 0% and enter the tax amount manually. If the input tax is unexpectedly refunded, you would post this as extraordinary income.

Status

In the Travel Expense Manager, you can display the status of the VAT refund details in the receipt overview of an expense report. The system uses the following status values:

  • Relevant for VAT Refund; Complete (Relevant for VAT Refund; Complete)

    The receipt contains all of the information required for the refund of value-added tax.

  • Relevant for VAT Refund; Incomplete (Relevant for VAT Refund; Incomplete)

    The receipt does not contain all of the information required for the refund of value-added tax.

  • Relevant for VAT Refund; Not to Be Completed (Relevant for VAT Refund; Not to Be Completed)

    The system skips the check for completeness of VAT refund details (see the section "Waiving a Refund").

By default, the system hides the status display for the VAT refund. You activate the status display for each trip provision variant and trip schema in Customizing for Travel Expenses under   Dialog and Travel Expenses Control   Dialog Control   Define Schema and Individual Field Control   by setting the field under   Travel Expense Manager   Trip Receipts   VAT Refund Status   to visible. You can use the feature TRVFD to differentiate between different user groups. For more information about user group-specific settings in schema and individual field control, see the system documentation for feature TRVFD.

Waiving a Refund

When you activate the status display in the Travel Expense Manager, the system also shows the following function keys in the receipt overview:

  • No VAT Refund

    This function can be used, for example by travel administrators, to exclude from the VAT refund individual receipts that do not contain the details required by the tax authorities. The status Relevant for VAT Refund; Not to Be Completed (Relevant for VAT Refund; Not to Be Completed) is set for the receipt. This can be useful, for example, if the effort to determine the VAT registration number of a foreign taxi driver far outweighs the benefit of the anticipated VAT refund.

  • VAT Refund

    This function can be used, for example by travel administrators, to reactivate individual receipts that were previously excluded from the VAT refund. The status Relevant for VAT Refund; Incomplete (Relevant for VAT Refund; Incomplete) is set for the receipt.

Excluding Expense Types from VAT Refunds

You can exclude individual expense types from VAT refunds (for example, for tips, payments in kind, or deductions) by setting the indicator Expense Type Not Relevant for VAT Refunds for these expense types. Set this indicator in Customizing for Travel Expenses under   Master Data   Travel Expense Types   Create Travel Expense Types for Individual Receipts  .

Evaluation

You can use the program S_EH5_01000312 - Related Documents for EU VAT Refund to evaluate and process the receipts for VAT refunds. This program is located in SAP Easy Access menu under   Accounting   Financial Accounting   Travel Management   Travel Expenses   Information System   Trip Statistics  .

Customizing

In Customizing for Travel Expenses under   Master Data   Advanced Treatment of Value Added Tax  , you can define the codes and subcodes for the acquired goods or services provided. In the field control for VAT refunds, you can determine which details are required per country for refunding value-added tax. You can also define the default values for the tax code and the VAT refund codes for your trip provision variants by expense type and trip country:

The standard SAP system includes the codes and subcodes for all trip countries in the European Union. For all standard trip provision variants assigned to an EU country, the following default settings are valid for the other 26 respective EU countries:

  • The default setting Submit; Post According to Tax Code applies for the processing of the receipts.

  • Field control complies with the requirements of the EU Directive.

  • Many expense types have default values for the VAT refund codes.

Activities

Work through the Customizing activities for Travel Expenses under   Master Data   Advanced Treatment of Value Added Tax  . For more information, see the respective documentation for each Customizing activity.