Following decisions of the European Court of Justice and the German Supreme Tax Court the Federal Finance Ministry has issued guidelines on the VAT grouping and the input VAT deduction for holding companies. In a special VAT Newsflash our tax experts take a closer look on the situation as a whole.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that the sale of an investment in a company is a non-business related activity and furthermore VAT-free as a sale of shares. The right to deduct the related input tax depends on the costs being not linked only to the sale.
