In VAT4U, we keep an electronic file with all your information around your VAT refund claim. This includes an overview of the transactions inside your claim and all supporting documents, from claim confirmation via queries to decisions.
Under the "VAT Recovery" section, there is a "Manage VAT Claims" tab, where you can find all the information about your claims, before and after submission:
After you click on the Claim ID in order to select the VAT claim, you can access to all your VAT claim data in one place:
1. Overview
The "Overview tab" is the main summary page for a single VAT claim, split into two columns: General Information on the left and KPI's on the right.
General Information covers the claim's core identifying and administrative data:
VAT4U Claim ID – the unique internal claim number (e.g., 21629)
Claim internal ID – an editable free-text field for the user's own reference
Applicant – the company the claim is filed for (linked to its profile)
VAT ID (COE) – the applicant's VAT ID in the country of establishment
Created at / Created by – when the claim was generated and by whom
Period – the expense period covered by the claim
COR – Country of Refund (where the VAT is being reclaimed from)
Claim type – "Claim to Tax Administration" or "Claim to Vendor"
Submitted on / Submitted by – submission date and user
Representative – the fiscal representative on the claim, if any
Bank account – the account designated to receive the refund
Claim reference number – editable/copyable reference field - a number received by the TAX authorities after the claim submission and entered in this field manually
Received by COR – checkbox confirming the tax authority has received it
Expenses purpose – business category of the claimed expenses (e.g., "Business travel and accommodation")
Last status update – who changed the claim's status last and when
KPI's shows performance and financial tracking metrics for the claim:
Refund status – current stage (e.g., Queued)
Approval rate – percentage of the claim approved so far
Service used – the client's service tier (e.g., Gold)
Number of queries – how many queries the tax authority has raised
Next stage status – whether the next step is open/pending
Bank fee / Interest received – financial adjustments tied to the refund
Tax Administration refund date – date the authority paid out, if set
Date refund to client – date the refund was forwarded to the client, if set
2. Queries
Our Smart AI makes handling queries and appeals much simpler by doing most of the heavy reading and preparation for you.
When you upload a query from a tax authority, the AI can:
Analyze the document and translate it into English (or another language) while keeping the original layout
Summarize the key points and create a clear to‑do list of what needs to be done
Help prepare your response, including attaching required documents like invoices or proof of payment
Generate the reply in multiple languages(English, the local language, or bilingual)
You just review the generated response and send it.
The Queries tab handles the workflow for questions/requests raised by the tax authority on a claim, tracked as a step-by-step checklist on the left, with document and detail fields on the right.
Left panel - workflow checklist, organized into four stages:
Query Document Upload
Query Understanding
Query Answer Preparation
Answer Submission
Each item appears as a checkbox/status indicator, so at a glance you can see exactly where a given query stands in the process.
Right panel - query details, shown under "Received query document":
Date received and Answer deadline – key dates for tracking response time
Query title – short description of what's being requested (e.g., "Original PP61, proof of payment and Commercial register")
Complexity – a rating field (e.g., Simple)
Two document preview panes (each with a Download button) - showing the original query document received and a related/translated version
This tab essentially lets the team manage the full lifecycle of a tax authority query on a single claim, from receiving the request through to submitting the answer.
Claim queries tab is only available once claim is moved to status Queued. To progress a claim to the next status, it’s recommended to first review the Claim Confirmation PDF available in the General tab. Once you’ve done so, you can proceed to approve the claim.
3. Decision & Appeals
This tab tracks any formal decisions issued by the tax authority on the claim, and any appeals filed in response, laid out as a sortable/filterable table.
Add new decision - a button to log a new decision received from the tax authority on this claim.
Table columns:
Id – unique identifier for the decision entry
Date received – when the decision was received from the tax authority
Title – short label/description of the decision
Refund status – outcome tied to this decision (e.g., approved, rejected, partial)
Last update – when this entry was last modified
Appeal deadline – the date by which an appeal must be filed, if applicable
Days left – countdown to the appeal deadline, useful for flagging urgency
Appeal status – current state of any appeal filed (e.g., pending, submitted, none)
Sent on / Sent by – when the appeal (or related communication) was sent, and by whom
Options – row-level actions (edit, view, etc.)
Each column header also has sort arrows and, on several columns, a search or filter icon for narrowing down the list - useful when a claim has multiple decisions or appeal rounds to track over time.
4. Attachments
This tab holds all documents and files associated with a claim, shown as a paginated table with quick-access download links below.
Add new attachment - a button to upload a new file to the claim.
Table columns:
Id – unique identifier for each attachment (e.g., 90769)
Date created – when the file was added
File name – the document's name (blurred in your screenshot)
Type – category of the attachment, e.g., "claim_attachment_final," "confirmation," or general "user" uploads
Uploaded by – who added the file
Options – download and delete actions per row
Below the table, two quick-download shortcuts:
All invoice copies – "Get all invoice copies" link to bulk-download every invoice tied to the claim
Invoicing attachments – "Download order" link, likely for a consolidated export of invoicing-related documents
At the bottom, two collapsible sections:
Claim related tasks – presumably any internal tasks linked to this claim
Claim messages (0) – a messages/notes thread for the claim, currently empty
Essentially, this tab is the document repository for the claim — everything from invoice copies to authority confirmations, all in one place with bulk-download options.
5. Risk assessment
This tab automatically runs a set of checks against the invoices and vendors included in the claim, flagging anything that could cause the tax authority to reject or query the submission.
A note at the top clarifies scope: the assessment only covers invoices within this specific claim — it doesn't check invoices from other quarterly claims for the same company.
Checks performed, each with a status icon:
No vendors found with the same name but different VAT number
No vendors found with same VAT number but different name
No duplicate invoice numbers for the same vendor
No duplicate invoice numbers found
Possibly invalid invoice numbers (Show results)
Unexpected VAT Rates (Show results)
1 AI-processed expense(s) not yet verified by a human (Review in Manage Expenses)
No vendors with missing VAT ID
No vendors found with invalid VAT ID format
1 invoice(s) have items missing TAX Code (Show results)
Some claims for Demo company (MBE) are pending decision in Germany (Show results)
EU VAT claims may be affected by NACE code structure changes (Learn more)
Below this, a "Categories appearing in the claim" section begins (cut off in your screenshot), likely breaking down the expense categories included.
Colour meaning:
🟢 Green checkmark — check passed, no issue found; nothing to act on
🔴 Red exclamation — a real risk was detected that could jeopardize the claim (e.g., possibly invalid invoice numbers, unexpected VAT rates) — needs review before submission
🟠 Orange exclamation — a lower-severity warning or action item (e.g., unverified AI expense, missing tax code, upcoming regulatory change) — worth checking but less critical than red
⚪ Grey exclamation — an informational note rather than a risk per se (e.g., other claims pending decision) — for awareness, not necessarily action
So the colour scale essentially runs from green (safe) → grey (FYI) → orange (attention needed) → red (likely to cause a problem if not addressed).
6. Submission
This tab handles the actual filing of the claim with the relevant tax authority, split into a submission workflow on the left and a cancellation option on the right.
Claim submission (left side):
States which automated processor will handle the filing — here, for example "Claim VAT flow from France to Germany will use FR8_ROBOT_PROCESSOR" — indicating the specific robot/bot used to submit this particular flow (8th Directive, France to Germany)
Username and Password fields — credentials for the tax portal, required for the robot to log in and submit on the claimant's behalf
A Warning banner flags a known issue: the French tax portal is currently having login/logout instability. A patch has been deployed but isn't fully confirmed stable, so users are advised to double-check the French tax portal after submitting, even if the robot reports an error, and to retry a few times before contacting support if no draft appears
Submit claim button (with a red exclamation icon, suggesting an unresolved warning/error state is currently blocking or flagging the submission)
Download output files to submit claim manually — a fallback option with a Download XML file link, for cases where the automated submission doesn't work and the claim needs to be filed manually
Claim cancelation (right side):
A single Cancel claim button, to withdraw the claim from the submission process
In short, this tab is where a claim actually gets sent to the tax authority — either automatically via the country-specific "robot" processor, or manually by downloading the required XML file — with built-in warnings about known portal issues, plus the option to cancel the claim entirely.
7. E-mails
The Emails tab is where all email correspondence related to that specific claim lives.
What you can do there:
View linked emails – any message connected to the claim appears here, listed individually (not grouped as threads). Opening one marks it as read.
Compose directly – hit the Compose button to send an email that's automatically linked to the claim. Replies come back linked too.
Smart BCC address – each claim gets its own unique BCC address. If you BCC that address from your regular email client, the message shows up in this tab automatically.
Refresh – pulls in any new messages that have been linked since you last checked.
The blue badge next to "Claim messages" shows unread count, and a red icon flags unread emails in the claim list view.
So basically: it's your email hub for everything tied to that claim—whether you compose in VAT4U or forward from outside.
