Statizoid

Paying taxes: Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks) (DB17-20 methodology) by country

The time to obtain VAT refund measures the time from purchase of the machine to the date of submission of the refund claim (this is equal to half the filing period), the length of any mandatory period that the excess output VAT must be carried forward before a claim can be made, and the time from the submission of...

Countries reporting
101
Highest
109.88 DB17-20 methodology
Tanzania
Lowest
2.31 DB17-20 methodology
Estonia
Median
21.85 DB17-20 methodology
Years covered
5
2015–2019
Data points
510

What the numbers show

Paying taxes: Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks) (DB17-20 methodology) is currently reported for 101 countries. The highest value is 109.88 DB17-20 methodology in Tanzania; the lowest is 2.31 DB17-20 methodology in Estonia.

The median across all reporting countries is 21.85 DB17-20 methodology, and the mean is 27.42 DB17-20 methodology.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 48.

Paying taxes: Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks): full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Tanzania 109.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
2 Jamaica 89.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
3 Palestine 79.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
4 Pakistan 79.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
5 Cambodia 63.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
6 Italy 62.57 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
7 Tunisia 62.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
8 Barbados 56.33 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
9 Honduras 54.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
10 Jordan 52.9 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
11 Antigua and Barbuda 52.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
12 Ethiopia 48.69 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
13 Zimbabwe 48.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
14 Indonesia 47.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
15 Malawi 44.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
16 Gabon 44.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
17 Cyprus 43.79 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — volatile
18 Lebanon 43.64 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
19 Saint Kitts and Nevis 42.64 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
20 Nicaragua 42.6 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
21 Mexico 42.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
22 Lesotho 41.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
23 Trinidad and Tobago 40.33 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
24 Papua New Guinea 39.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
24 Rwanda 39.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
26 Iran 38.5 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
27 Chile 37.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
28 Nepal 37.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
29 Albania 37.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
30 North Macedonia 36.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
31 Mozambique 36.71 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
32 Cape Verde 35.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
33 Kiribati 34.64 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
34 Guyana 33.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
35 Thailand 33.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
36 Tonga 32.98 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
37 Dominica 31.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
38 Greece 31.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
39 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 30.6 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
40 Belgium 28.5 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
41 Vanuatu 28.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
42 Malta 27.93 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
43 Azerbaijan 27.6 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
44 Romania 27.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
45 Botswana 26.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
46 Saint Lucia 25.6 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
47 Bulgaria 24.83 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
48 Iceland 24.48 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
49 Slovakia 24.14 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
50 Costa Rica 23.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
51 Montenegro 21.85 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
52 Singapore 21.07 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
53 Zambia 20.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
54 Russia 19.36 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
55 Eswatini 19.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
56 Bosnia and Herzegovina 19.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
57 Fiji 18.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
58 Belize 18.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
59 Bangladesh 17.91 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
60 Czechia 17.74 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
61 Namibia 17.05 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
62 Senegal 16.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
63 Seychelles 16.83 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
64 Spain 16.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
65 Ireland 16.33 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
66 South Africa 15.5 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
67 Uganda 15.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
68 Luxembourg 15.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
69 Switzerland 14.5 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
69 Netherlands 14.5 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
71 Ukraine 14.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
72 Portugal 14.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
73 Norway 14.12 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
74 Samoa 14.05 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
75 Canada 14.02 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
76 Moldova 13.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
77 Cote d'Ivoire 12.88 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
78 Taiwan 11.48 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
79 Hungary 11.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
80 Japan 10.79 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
81 Serbia 10.24 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — falling
82 Georgia 10.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
83 Denmark 10.1 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
84 South Korea 8.64 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
85 Poland 8.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
85 Sweden 8.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
87 Australia 7.95 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
88 Israel 7.45 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — volatile
89 United Kingdom 7.21 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 Finland 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 France 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 Croatia 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 Lithuania 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 Latvia 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
90 Yemen 6.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
96 Germany 5.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
96 New Zealand 5.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
96 Slovenia 5.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
99 Mauritius 4.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — volatile
100 Austria 3.17 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat
101 Estonia 2.31 DB17-20 methodology 2019 — flat

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

  • Kosovo 29.45 DB17-20 methodology

About this data

Indicator
Paying taxes: Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks) (DB17-20 methodology)
Unit
DB17-20 methodology
Source
World Bank
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
102 places, 510 data points, 2015–2019
Last refreshed

The time to obtain VAT refund measures the time from purchase of the machine to the date of submission of the refund claim (this is equal to half the filing period), the length of any mandatory period that the excess output VAT must be carried forward before a claim can be made, and the time from the submission of the VAT refund claim to the date the refund is received. If a company that requests a VAT cash refund arising from a capital purchase would be selected for additional review in 50% or more of cases, the duration of the review is included in the time to obtain a VAT refund. The component indicator is computed based on the methodology in the DB17-20 studies.