Case law
SAC on default interest waivers
In its judgment 4 Afs 311/2021-33, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) addressed whether it is possible to grant a taxpayer's request for a waiver of default interest that has arisen from incorrect VAT treatment. The entity themselves actively…
Statutory body liable for unpaid VAT?
Advocate General Juliane Kokott has recently dealt with whether the general joint and several liability of a statutory body falls within the scope of the VAT Directive (due to a company's inability to pay its VAT debt). She also commented on whether…
SAC held issue of one-crown bonds abuse of law
In its recent judgment, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) dealt with the issue of one-crown bonds that effectively redirected a portion of funds from a cash pooling structure to one-crown bonds with long-term maturity. The court ruled that the…
Questions surrounding VAT treatment of promotional events
In its recent judgement (No. 10 Afs 179/2020-56) the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) concluded that a company that organised a promotional event was not entitled to the refund of input VAT on subcontracted supplies. According to the court, these…
CJEU's surprising conclusion on VAT rate for elevator repairs
The Court of Justice of the EU has ruled on the VAT rate for renovation and repairs of elevators in residential buildings and has also dealt with the VAT rate for the regular maintenance of elevators. In both cases, the conclusions are rather…
CJEU: implementation of concentration requiring clearance by competition authority…
In its recent judgment in case T-609/19, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) emphasised the need to distinguish between concentration and implementation of a concentration. This means that the implementation of a concentration…
SAC: intermediary services abroad must be proven as well
In a number of countries, trading is virtually impossible without a local intermediary. In its recent judgment (8 Afs 315/2019), the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) dealt with the burden of proof regarding intermediation of sale of goods in China…
Interest on retained excess VAT deductions: SAC clarifies practice
In its current judgment, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) revisited the topic of interest on retained excess VAT deductions. This time, the court declared unlawful the practice whereby as of 1 July 2017 the tax administrator reduced the…
VAT fixed establishments and foreign subsidiaries
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has dealt with the question of whether a parent company‘s VAT fixed establishment originates in another EU member state where its subsidiary is located and provides the parent company with marketing and other…
Overstepping search procedure boundaries may affect tax assessment deadline
In a recent decision, the Supreme Administrative Court commented on a tax administrator's overstepping of the boundaries of a search procedure, stating that the activity had in fact been a tax inspection. This had a major impact on the expiry of the…
SAC paves way for assessment of additional tax on transactions with unrelated parties
The Supreme Administrative Court has opened transfer pricing’s Pandora's box by allowing tax administrators to assess additional tax based on overall profitability not just for related-party transactions, but also for transactions with unrelated…
What constitutes a tax inspection?
Recently, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) repeatedly commented on which tax administration procedures should be regarded as a tax inspection. The court’s answers may have a major impact on the success or failure of tax proceedings. The court…