Value added tax.
Article 59ab of the VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax) was implemented into the Spanish domestic legislation through Article 70(2) of the Spanish VAT law (Law No. 37 of 28 December 1992 on value added tax). As is well known, this article contains a special…
The very recent CJEU judgement in Berlin Chemie A. Menarini v Administraţia Fiscală pentru Contribuabili Mijlocii Bucureşti (Case C-333/20) ECLI:EU:C:2022:291, admirably examined by Giorgio Beretta last week considered the circumstances in which a subsidiary might be a VAT fixed establishment (FE) of its parent company or another affiliate. A Romanian company supplied advertising, marketing and…
A subsidiary cannot be a fixed establishment (FE) under EU VAT in (almost) any case. This is a (quite) reassuring takeaway for VAT businesses from the much-awaited decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Berlin Chemie A. Menarini (Case C-333/20). With its ruling on 7 April 2022, the CJEU (re?)affirmed…
On 10 March 2022, the Spanish Tax Administration issued a ruling concerning the VAT treatment of the transfer, through an online internet auction, of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that grant their purchasers certain rights of use (hereinafter: ‘the Ruling’).[1] The Spanish Tax Administration provides through this ruling a comprehensive analysis of the taxation for VAT of…
Through the judgment in Case C-714/20 issued on 12 May 2022 [1], the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified that the indirect customs representative is liable, jointly and severally with the importer, only for customs duties relating to the goods and not for import VAT. This conclusion consolidates the EU jurisprudence on…
About a year ago, a Regional Fiscal Court in Cologne (Germany) ruled virtual renting of virtual land to be a VATable transaction.[1] In the case, a German taxpayer generated revenue by renting out virtual land. The taxpayer – or rather his avatar – received virtual currency in exchange for the virtual land. The taxpayer then…
Phelippe Toledo Pires de Oliveira[1] In late February 2022, the Brazilian federal government published a decree slashing the federal tax on manufactured goods (IPI). For those unfamiliar with the country’s taxes, IPI is one of the many VATs levied in Brazil. IPI is levied by the federal government and is often used as an excise…
Territorial connection (or its more fashionable name “nexus”) for tax purposes is expressed in a variety of ways in domestic and international legal instruments. Permanent establishment in article 5 of the Model treaties and “fixed base” in article 14 of the UN Model are central concepts in direct tax subject matter jurisdiction. Fixed establishment The…
The first part of this two-piece article titled “Virtual Activities: EU VAT’s Effort to Recompose the Broken ‘Unity of Action, Time and Place’ – Part I” provided an overview of the new place of supply rules for services relating to virtual activities introduced in the VAT Directive by the compromise text for updates on VAT…
On 7 December 2021, government ministers from European Union (EU) countries gathering at the EU Council agreed on updates of the current rules governing value added tax (VAT) rates for goods and services. The new EU rules on VAT rates represent a long-awaited modernisation of the relevant provisions contained in Annex III to Directive 2006/112/CE…
In a judgment rendered on 5 October 2021 (case 2C_891/2020), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld the decision by the Federal Administrative Court of 18 September 2020 (case A-7028/2018), which had found that the proceeds realized by a Swiss corporate VAT taxpayer from the resale of a position of its own stock (“treasury shares”) did…
Introduction In two previous posts on this blog (1 and 2), the author analyzed the VAT treatment of activities carried out by public entities, particularly public entities that offer radio and television services. Case C-21/20 referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by a Bulgarian court, and in which various aspects…
In the first part of this article, the authors provided an overview of the Blackrock case. In the second part of this article, the authors consider the DBKAG case and reflect on the impact that these decisions have on businesses in the short and mid-term. 2.2 Is the supply of a specific software capable of…
In this article, which is divided in two parts, the authors consider two judgments from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in respect of the VAT exemption for the management of funds. In particular, the authors examine how these judgments deal with the issue of digitalisation and outsourcing. Part 1 of this…
