More than three years ago, the Federal Fiscal Court de-cided that hospital treatments carried out by private hospitals could be VAT exempt. To date, the legislator has not amended the German VAT law in this regard, which is contrary to European law. In its current decision, the Federal Fiscal Court points to a possible VAT exemption, based on Union law, for medical care centers which are not licensed in accordance with sec. 95 of the Social Security Code V.

The German Ministry of Finance has implemented the Court’s legislation of 11 November 2015 – V R 37/14, according to which, VAT exemption following sec. 4 no. 12 sentence 1 lit. a German VAT Act also includes the leasing of furnished rooms or buildings if the leasing is long-term. Landlords are required to implement this new legislation from 1 January 2018. Input VAT adjustments following sec. 15a German VAT Act must be made if necessary.

On 05.12.2017 the EU Finance Ministers adopted one Directive and two Regulations. These statutes will make it easier for e-commerce businesses to comply with VAT law. The MOSS procedure will, inter alia, be expanded to include distance sales. Platforms for distance sellers will be held liable for sales carried out by external merchants. A threshold for the supply of B2C services will be implemented and a lot more is introduced…