Tax & Legal

The Supreme Tax Court had asked the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the question of a direct refund claim in the case of incorrectly invoiced and paid German VAT in the event of the supplier's insolvency. In its judgment, the ECJ is of the opinion that the recipient of the service cannot claim a refund of the VAT paid to the supplier directly from the tax authorities of his Member State.

Following a preliminary request from the Münster Tax Court the ECJ ruled that the recipient of supplies of goods has a direct claim towards the tax authorities for reimbursement of improperly invoiced VAT he paid to the suppliers and which has been duly transferred by the latter to the treasury, even if the recipient can no longer turn directly to his suppliers for reimbursement due to the statute of limitation as provided for by national law.

If a tax privilege which is optional under EU law was wrongfully not granted, and where the taxpayer therefore was forced to make advance tax payments, interest is payable on the eventual tax refund claim. This was decided by the Supreme Tax Court in a case where the tax office refused to apply the reduced electricity tax rate on the quantity of electricity drawn in respect of the plaintiff’s own consumption.

The German rules on the procedure and documentation requirements for withholding tax refunds to non-resident portfolio shareholders are not compatible with the EU principles on the free movement of capital, as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in a most recent decision.

On 20 December 2017 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) took the view that Section 50d (3) Income Tax Act prohibiting certain intermediary foreign companies from (full or partial) refund of German withholding tax was incompatible with both the Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the freedom of establishment. The German Tax Authorities have recently issued a circular on its application of the rules.

The finance ministry has issued a decree forbidding foreign businesses from reclaiming the VAT invoiced to them on exports or intra-community supplies from Germany.

The finance ministry has decreed that a Supreme Tax Court case requiring a foreign business to file a full VAT return of all German inputs and outputs where its only taxable output is a VAT invoice issued in error should only be followed by foreign businesses whose refund claims have been rejected in error.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that interest received on a tax refund due is taxable income despite the non-deductibility of interest payable on an outstanding liability.

The Supreme Tax Court has upheld the VAT Act provision that a VAT refund claim of a non-EU/EEA company must be signed by an authorised signatory.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that a foreign business should file an annual return for VAT showing its entire recoverable input tax for the year if it owed output tax at any time during the year for any reason.