Soudni dvur EU rozhodoval v ceske danove veci

Court of Justice of the EU decided in Czech tax case

The Court of Justice of the EU ("CJEU") has dealt with a preliminary question submitted by the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic. In case C-676/22 B2 Energy s.r.o. the CJEU considered whether the principle formulated in case C-154/20 Kemwater ProChemie, which we informed you about HERE, (i.e. whether it is not necessary to identify the exact person of the supplier, but only to prove that the supplier acted in the status of a taxable person) can be applied to the supply of goods to another Member State . In other words, whether it is sufficient to prove the status of the actual purchaser of the goods in another Member State as a taxable person in order to claim VAT exemption.

B2 Energy s.r.o. supplied rapeseed oil to Poland in 2015. The company submitted delivery notes, CMR certificates, weighing tickets, bank statements, which showed that the goods were delivered to another Member State, but their receipt was confirmed by entities other than those declared by the company as its purchasers.

In principle, the CJEU confirmed the applicability of the principle formulated in the Kemwater ProChemie case. Exemption from VAT can only be denied if the supplier has failed to prove the taxable person status of the recipient of the goods in another Member State and (at the same time) if, in the light of the facts of the case and the information provided by the supplier, neither the tax authorities have the information necessary to verify that the recipient had that status.

The B2 Energy judgment would certainly be a landmark ruling, but in light of the new rules introduced under the so-called Quick Fixes, which we have informed you about HERE, it is already outdated. As of January 2020, in order to claim VAT exemption, it is necessary to indicate in the summary declaration the VAT number assigned to the customer in another Member State. For this purpose, it is necessary to identify precisely the person to whom the right to dispose of the goods as owner is transferred, and this person must provide the supplier with its valid VAT number.

If you have any questions, please contact the authors of the paper or the members of the EY team with whom you usually work.

Authors:

Stanislav Kryl

Štěpán Kvíz