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In the case of private hospitals, the question of which criteria are to be applied in order to assess whether medical treatment supplies provided until the end of 2019 are VAT exempt remains in dispute. Since last year’s judgement of the German Federal Fiscal Court, special emphasis has been placed on examining the "economic efficiency" as defined by social law. This is the first time that a German fiscal court has dealt with this criterion. The ECJ has commented on the aspect of partial reimbursement of costs by social security institutions. A new legal situation will apply for the financial year 2020.
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With its decision of 27.11.2019 (V R 23/19), the Federal Fiscal Court ruled that the activity of a supervisory board member, who receives fixed remuneration without variable remuneration components, is not a taxable person for VAT purposes. In the Federal Fiscal Court’s view, the supervisory board member did not bear any economic risk associated with his activity and therefore, did not provide any services subject to VAT. The judgment should be transferable to limited liability companies, foundations, advisory boards and comparable supervisory bodies, and possibly also to management boards. The Federal Fiscal Court left open other case constellations, other than fixed remuneration. The Federal Fiscal Court also ruled that a self-billing invoice showing VAT only constitutes a tax liability in accordance to sec 14c para. 2 of the German VAT Act, if the recipient of the self-billing invoice is a taxable person.
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Even in the case of a share deal, a non taxable transfer of a going concern can be given in individual cases. This was recently clarified by the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH, judgement of 18.09.2019 – XI R 33/18). This case concerned a controlling company in a VAT group which transferred 100% of the controlled company’s shares. The Court found that, in these sorts of circumstances, if the acquirer of the shares goes on to establish a VAT group with the acquired company, this constitutes a sale of a going concern. Besides that, also other constellations beyond the VAT group are conceivable in which the sale of 100% of shares can lead to a non taxable transfer of a going concern.
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