In its judgement of 24 June 2025 (ref. VII R 33/22), the German Federal Fiscal Court stated that a provision of security in the amount of the potential excise duty on sparkling wine for the transport under tax suspension is not a constitutive requirement for the valid commencement of the tax suspension procedure. The Court is opposing the previous practice of the customs authorities. The judgement has implications beyond excise duty on sparkling wine, as provision of security is also regulated in other excise duty laws.

On 15 October 2025, the German Federal Ministry of Finance published another official letter on the obligatory use of electronic invoices for domestic B2B supplies. Contrary to some expectations, the Federal Ministry continues to emphasize the importance of invoice validation. In the Federal Ministry’s view, only those who check their e-invoices with a suitable validation application can avoid any risk to input VAT deduction. KMLZ supports you in checking and certifying your validation application if required. The Federal Ministry’s letter also includes further clarifications on obligatory invoice elements and corrections of e-invoices. You can find more details in our current newsletter.

From a VAT perspective, who is the supplier to the end customer in the case of an in-app purchase? The app developer or the app store? From the ECJ’s point of view, it is the app store, unless it expressly acts on behalf of a third party. However, it should not be sufficient for the app store to merely refer to the app developer in the order confirmation for an assumption to be made that it is acting on behalf of a third party.