EU VAT Refunds: New EPRIS Access and Authorisation Rules Effective 25 November 2026

By Order No. VA-78 of 5 November 2026, the State Tax Inspectorate (STI) approved a revised version of the rules for submitting electronic applications for the refund of value added tax paid in other EU Member States. The updated regulation enters into force on 25 November 2026, replacing the 2010 framework (Order No. VA-1) that implements EU Council Directive 2008/9/EC.

A central operational change is the integration of the system into the STI's Tax Administration Platform (MAP). From the effective date, access to the Electronic Application Registration Information System (EPRIS) will be carried out exclusively via the STI Self-Service portal (VMI Savitarna).

The new legal act also establishes detailed and stricter representation parameters. An authorisation to represent an applicant in EPRIS may only be granted by an STI Self-Service user holding administrator rights. When configuring delegation, the administrator must explicitly define:
– The type of submitted application (VAT refund or adjustment of the deduction proportion);
– The authority to submit annual refund applications;
– The specific EU Member States to which the representative is permitted to submit documents.

These provisions directly affect Lithuanian VAT payers claiming refunds on foreign fuel purchases, lodging, travel, and logistics expenses across the EU. Where submissions are handled by internal staff or external accounting providers, corporate administrators must verify permissions in the STI portal. The STI has not yet confirmed whether existing authorisations will automatically migrate or require manual re-entry under the updated specifications.

Due to scheduled technical maintenance, both EPRIS and the STI Self-Service platform will be temporarily offline from 26 to 29 November 2026. Urgent cross-border refund applications should be submitted prior to 25 November 2026.