Long awaited, now they are here: The ECJ judgments regarding the VAT group. In summary, it remains the case that the controlling company is the taxable person for the group. In this respect, German law does not violate EU law. However, the ECJ's position on the taxability of supplies between group members remains unclear. In addition, the ECJ again shows that the parent company’s right to intervene in the activities of the subsidiary cannot be seen as mandatory in order for the establishment of a VAT group. The issue of supplies carried out free of charge, which was also dealt with by the ECJ, will be covered shortly in an upcoming newsletter.

There is a consensus that unnecessary plastic waste must be urgently avoided and - where plastic remains unavoidable - as much of it as possible must be recycled. To encourage business to achieve these goals, taxes and levies on plastic packaging are increasingly arising. German entrepreneurs are also subject to taxes/levies in many EU Member States or third countries under a wide variety of conditions. Our current newsletter provides an overview of plastic packaging taxes and levies with similar objectives.

In a tri-party contract, the question always arises as to who carries out which supply in return for consideration to whom. The main issue here is the requirement of a direct link. A recent German Federal Fiscal Court judgment, which deals with a clinic director’s waiver of his right to perform and invoice for medical treatment, also provides generally applicable statements in this regard. In addition, the German Federal Fiscal Court concretises its jurisprudence on the conditions under which an actus contrarius to a supply can be VAT exempt in the same way as the supply itself.