In its judgment of 4 May 2017 – C 274/15 – Commission/Luxemburg, the ECJ gave its opinion on the independence of associations and immediacy of the use of transactions within the meaning of Art. 132 para. 1 lit. f of the VAT Directive. This judgment is the first of a series of ECJ judgments on the interpretation of this regulation. Opinions on various aspects of further proceedings currently pending before the ECJ have already been published. The ECJ’s case law will have a significant impact on German law, as Germany has only implemented the Union tax exemption regulation for cost sharing associations to a very limited extent.

Since the introduction of the Mini One Stop Shop (or “MOSS”), tax audits have been a significant but unresolved issue. Member States have not (yet) been able to agree on harmonized rules. Neither the EU VAT Directive nor the VAT Implementation Regulation contain any corresponding provisions. A leaflet published by the German Ministry of Finance on cross-border tax audits now answers some of these questions, at least from a German perspective.

The German Federal Fiscal Court has now published another decision regarding a consignment stock case (V R 1/16). In this case, the German Federal Fiscal Court denied a direct delivery because there was no binding purchase contract in place at the beginning of the transport to the stock. The German Fiscal Court remained true to its principles, which is hardly surprising (see KMLZ Newsletter 03/2017). Another finding of the German Federal Fiscal Court is also interesting: A remuneration which was agreed on by mistake, without VAT, represents a gross amount, from which VAT needs to be subtracted. This is not only relevant for consignment stock cases, but for all cases in which VAT is required to be subsequently paid.