NSS: Bez kvalitní dokumentace nelze dodání zboží do EU osvobodit od DPH

The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) addressed the issue of proving transportation and meeting the conditions for VAT exemption on goods deliveries to the EU in judgment 1 Afs 74/2025 – 50. This ruling adds to the collection of previous decisions regarding the entitlement to VAT exemption when delivering goods to another member state.

In the case currently under consideration by the NSS, the supplier claimed that they delivered goods to a Hungarian customer, thereby fulfilling the conditions for VAT exemption on goods deliveries to the EU. However, the tax administrator questioned whether the delivery was indeed made to this company. According to the NSS, the supplier failed to eliminate these doubts (at least for the time being) because there were evident discrepancies in the transportation documentation. Specifically, the CMR documents mentioned the Hungarian company as the consignor, while other documents (such as delivery notes and international freight bills) referred to entirely different companies than the customer. Moreover, the supplier was not familiar with these other companies. Some documents were also unsigned or had been altered. Additionally, the Hungarian tax authorities did not confirm that the Hungarian company reported the acquisition of these goods in Hungary.

The NSS's doubts about the supplier's overall awareness of how the individual transactions actually took place were further reinforced by the supplier's claim that, in some situations, it involved a triangular trade. However, the supplier only used this argument when entities from different member states appeared on the CMR documents. When entities from the same state were involved, the supplier did not argue for a triangular trade.

The supplier was also burdened by the fact that they agreed with the Hungarian customer on DAP delivery terms (the seller bears all costs and risks associated with delivering the goods to the destination), but the customer arranged the transportation. Furthermore, under these terms, the supplier should have been listed as the sender on the CMR documents, not the customer.

We would like to reiterate that the area of proving compliance with the conditions for VAT exemption on intra-Community goods deliveries is under close scrutiny and should not be underestimated. If you are unsure whether you have correctly assigned transportation in chain transactions or whether your documentation would satisfy the conditions, we would be happy to assist you with the proper setup.

Authors:
Jakub Kašuba
Lenka Doležalová