Osvobození od DPH u přepravních dovozních služeb

VAT exemption for import transport services

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has published its judgment in Case C-461/21 SC Cartrans Preda SRL (HERE), which deals with the VAT exemption of transport services connected with the importation of goods and the proof thereof.

Cartrans, a Romanian haulier, provided a service to transport goods between a port in the Netherlands, where the goods entered the EU, and their destination in Romania. These services were exempted from VAT by Cartrans as they were related to the importation of the goods. However, the Romanian tax authorities argued that Cartrans did not meet the conditions for VAT exemption because it had not sufficiently demonstrated that the value of the transport was reflected in the taxable amount of the imported goods. Cartrans defended itself by arguing that the cost of transport to the destination was automatically included by the customs authorities in the customs value and taxable amount of the imported goods. In fact, both the CMR consignment note and the transit summary declaration indicated that the consignee of the goods was in Romania.

The CJEU only partially agreed with the company. The Court did not agree that the cost of transport to the destination is automatically included in the customs value in the case of transit. Therefore, the existence of the import MRN number alone does not prove the inclusion of the transport in the taxable amount. On the other hand, according to the CJEU, a Member State cannot refuse VAT exemption simply because a company has not provided the specific evidence required by local law. Documents such as the CMR certificate, the transit accompanying document, the invoice or the transport contract are facts which the tax authorities must take into account when assessing the existence of a VAT exemption claim for transport services, unless there are reasonable grounds for suspecting the authenticity of such documents.

In this respect, the Czech law appears to be sufficiently in line with European legislation, as the provisions of Article 69(3) of the VAT Act allow for other means of proof to prove the VAT exemption.

We would be happy to discuss specific situations from practice with you. If you have any questions, please contact the authors of this article or other members of the EY team with whom you work.

Authors:

Jevgenija Bajzíková

Lenka Doležalová