Tax & Legal

IIn a recently published judgment, the Supreme Tax Court held that a company can claim input VAT incurred on consulting and legal fees in connection with pursuing claims for damages (in this case, due to the cancellation of a car toll project) because the claim for compensation arose from a planned commercial activity and thus the underlying costs are, from a VAT point of view, business-related expenses.

In a recently published decision, the Supreme Tax Court has for the first time commented on the requirements for claims of damages before the tax court against a tax authority due to violation of data protection regulations. Such action for damages pursuant to Art. 82 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is generally inadmissible (for want of being adversely affected or burdened) if there has been no prior out-of-court request of the claim.

In its judgment today the European Court of Justice held that current EU-law contravenes a national legislation or a national practice which excludes the possibility for a tenderer who has been unlawfully excluded from a procedure for the award of a public contract to be compensated for the loss suffered because of the loss of the opportunity to participate in that procedure with the intention to obtain the contract concerned.

Where an employer contractually obliges himself to make several payments to an employee in connection with a termination of employment, the payments will only be considered as a single uniform compensation payment if there is clear evidence that all instalments were paid "as compensation for lost income or expected loss of income".

The finance ministry has issued a decree on final payments at the end of the lease term for motor vehicles distinguishing between adjustments for over or underuse and VAT-free compensation for damage.

The Supreme Tax Court has rejected a claim for damages for aggravation caused by a tax court’s excessive delay in hearing a case where that delay was the only reason the claimant won his case.