Recovering 21,400 PLN of overpaid VAT in exports
Last year, one of our clients from Szczecin would have lost 21,417 PLN just because export documents got stuck in the customs system without an echo. At Sloenka Logistic GR, we know the devil is in the confirmation of export outside the European Union, not in the declarations themselves. Facts and numbers matter, so we show in black and white how not to be outplayed by the taxman on simple official errors.
Where does the 0% rate escape?
Problems usually start with the IE599 message. This is the digital receipt confirming that the goods have actually left EU territory. Without it, the tax office will charge you the standard 23% VAT, which for a transport of a machine worth 100,000 PLN means a 23,000 PLN loss in an instant. At Sloenka Logistic GR, we analyzed 487 export operations from the third quarter of 2024. It turned out that in 9.2% of cases, the documents were incomplete, even though the goods had long reached the recipient in Norway or Switzerland.
A common mistake is relying solely on the CMR waybill. This is a mistake that costs real money. If clearance takes place at the port of Szczecin, you must watch over the procedure closure in the AES system. We have seen situations where a forwarder forgot one click, and the transport company woke up with a demand to pay back tax 11 months after shipment. No fluff: if you don't have an MRN number with a confirmed export status, your accounting has no right to use the 0% rate.
Without an IE599 message, you pay 23% VAT on every invoice, even if the goods are already on the other side of the world.
Supply chain trap
Unusual supply chains are the easiest way to problems with the authority. We are talking about situations where you sell goods to a German company but send them directly to their client in the UK. Who is responsible for clearance then? Who appears as the exporter on the SAD documents? Chaos often ensues here, where no one feels responsible for providing export evidence. In October 2024, we helped a company from Goleniów straighten out 14 such invoices, which saved them from a tax underpayment of 38,600 PLN.
In such cases, it is key to establish Incoterms before the vehicle leaves the base. If you choose EXW, you lose control over customs documentation because the buyer decides how and where to report the goods. We check the paragraphs, you haul the cargo – that's our rule. We recommend switching to FCA, which gives you the right to indicate a customs agency in Szczecin that will look after your interests and send you the set of documents within 47 minutes of actually crossing the border.
How to recover overpaid money?
If you have already paid 23% VAT because documents weren't on time, all is not lost. You have the right to correct the declaration once you finally obtain the export evidence. This process takes an average of 18 to 34 business days, depending on the efficiency of your tax office. At Sloenka Logistic GR, we handle such cases regularly. The record holder recovered 112,400 PLN from a transaction two years ago because we found alternative export evidence that the Customs Chamber accepted.
What can serve as alternative evidence? For example, payment confirmation from a foreign contractor, email correspondence regarding goods collection, or a loading specification confirmed by the port in Świnoujście. These are not myths – they are specific tools provided for in the VAT Act. It is important to gather them into a coherent whole and present them to the official before they come for an audit. Specifics instead of promises: we check every invoice for tax risk because it's better to fix an error in 3 minutes than to write explanations for 3 months.
Even after two years, you can recover overpaid VAT if you have the right alternative evidence.
Safe export rules
The first rule is verifying the MRN status at least once a week. Don't wait for the end of the month when the accountant closes the registers. If, 14 days after the goods have left, the system still shows the status 'released for procedure' instead of 'exported', that's an alarm signal. In 2023, we implemented a monitoring system for 12 transport companies from Szczecin. Thanks to this, the number of their problematic invoices dropped by 84% in the first half-year of cooperation.
The second issue is training drivers. They are often the last link that sees a physical stamp or signature at the border. Sometimes a document ends up behind the seat in the cab and stays there for 3 months. Introducing a simple procedure of taking a photo of every signed document with a phone and sending it to a dedicated address biuro@sloenka.com allows us to react immediately. Remember that in international transport every zloty counts, and VAT is not a cost you have to shoulder because of someone's oversight.
