In its decision of 25.04.2018, the Federal Fiscal Court’s 9th Senate voiced “serious doubts” as regards the constitutionality of the interest rate charged on tax arrears. The Federal Ministry of Finance’s now instructs tax offices to grant the suspension of the execution for all interest assessments which are based on sec 238 General Fiscal Code. However, this only applies for interest periods as of April 2015. Moreover, taxpayers must first appeal against the interest assessment and apply for the suspension.

In practice, the time a supply takes place, is one of the most common pieces of mandatory information missing from invoices. According to the latest Federal Fiscal Court case law (decision of 01.03.2018, V R 18/17), this missing information may be concluded from the date of issue of the invoice. The prerequisite for this is that according to the circumstances of the respective case, it can be expected that the supply was rendered in the month the invoice was issued.

Input VAT deduction from advance payments is part of a taxable person’s daily business. Where the supply does not take place, input VAT deduction can only be denied if the payer, at the time of the payment on account, knew or reasonably should have known that the supply was uncertain (judgement of 31.05.2018, C-660/16 and C-661/16, Kollroß und Wirtl). If the payer only acquires this knowledge later, he must adjust the deduction of input VAT only in circumstances where he recoups the advance payment from the contracting party.