European Court of Justice, “Staatssecretaris van Financiën,” Case C-194/21, Input VAT Deduction When the Time Limit to Exercise It Has Expired

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that Articles 184 and 185 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of VAT, as amended by Council Directive 2010/45/EU of 13 July 2010, must be interpreted as not precluding a taxable person who failed to exercise, before the expiry of the limitation period laid down by national law, the right to deduct VAT relating to the acquisition of goods or services, from being denied the possibility of subsequently making that deduction, by way of an adjustment, at the time when those goods or services are first used for the purposes of taxed transactions, even where no abuse of rights, fraud, or loss of tax revenue has been established.

European Court of Justice, “Dyrektor Izby Skarbowej w W.,” Case C-696/20, Place of Taxation in Chain Transactions

The ECJ has ruled that Article 41 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of VAT must be interpreted as not precluding the provisions of a member state under which intra-community acquisitions of goods are deemed to have been made in the territory of that member state, where that acquisition, which is the first step in a chain of subsequent transactions, was wrongly classified as a domestic transaction by the taxpayers participating in it, who provided their VAT identification number assigned by that member state for that purpose, and a subsequent transaction that was incorrectly classified as an intra-community transaction was subject to VAT as an intra-community acquisition of goods by buyers of the goods in the member state where the transport of the goods was terminated. In light of the principles of proportionality and fiscal neutrality, however, this provision precludes those provisions of a member state, where the intra-community acquisition of goods that is deemed to have been made in the territory of that member state results from an intra-community supply of goods that has not been considered tax exempt in that member state.

European Court of Justice, “Megatherm-Csillaghegy,” Case C-188/21, VAT Deduction Right When Tax Authorities Revoke a Taxable Person’s Tax Number

The ECJ has ruled that “Articles 63, 167, 168, 178 to 180, 182 and 273 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of VAT, as amended by Directive 2010/45/EU of the Council, of 13 July 2010, and the principles of neutrality of VAT and proportionality must be interpreted as precluding a national provision by virtue of which a registered taxable person for VAT purposes, whose tax identification number has been revoked for failing to submit and publish its annual accounts, has been reinstated, following the regularization of this omission, is deprived of its right to deduct input VAT in the preceding period to that revocation, even if the substantive requirement for the right to deduct VAT is satisfied and that the taxable person has not acted fraudulently or abusively in order to benefit from that right.”

Infringement Procedures Against UK Over Failure to Implement Certain Measures Related to VAT in Respect of Northern Ireland

The European Commission sent four letters of formal notice against the United Kingdom regarding issues in respect of Northern Ireland, namely the failure to implement the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), allowing suppliers and electronic interfaces selling low-value imported goods to buyers in the EU to declare and pay the VAT in only one EU member state, among other matters.