Tax & Legal

The finance ministry has amended the VAT Implementation Decree to follow the European Council Regulation 282/2011 of March 15, 2011 clarifying the place of supply of services to consumers, including businesses purchasing the supply for other than business purposes.

The Federal Tax Office, by way of a circular, has adjusted its VAT Application Ordinance with regard to the 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice on the determination of the place of supply of services in connection to the admission to educational events.

The European Court of Justice held that a German resident company (limited partnership) has no establishment for VAT purposes in Romania under a service contract with a Romanian group company. The court also addressed the question of the place of performance under the circumstances in the case referred.

The Supreme Tax Court decided that voucher codes for use in the X network - regardless of the distribution channel - are so-called single-purpose vouchers and their transfer is subject to German VAT because the place of performance is in Germany, and the amount of VAT is already determined at the time of issue based on the country code of the user accounts.

The Supreme Tax Court held that services provided by a US-resident online-dating agency to German resident private users constituted electronically supplied services, with their place of supply in Germany.

In a recent judgment the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that a German company does not maintain a fixed establishment through its Romanian subsidiary where the latter actively promoted the products of the German company in Romania based on marketing, advertising and regulatory strategies established and developed by the German parent.

In a request for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Tax Court the European Court of Justice was asked to comment on the classification and VAT liability regarding the marketing of prepaid cards or voucher codes used to purchase digital content in an online shop. Specifically, the focus was on the distinction between single-purpose vouchers and multi-purpose vouchers.

In a resolution regarding the request for suspension of payment the Supreme Tax Court endorsed the different VAT treatment of terrestrial (physical) gambling versus VAT exempt online gambling. Furthermore, the court held that this unequal treatment is not contrary to the EU principles of fiscal neutrality.