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VAT News 25/2019
ECJ again qualifies use of fuel cards as granting of credit rather than supply of goods in a chain
On 15 May 2019, the European Court of Justice published a ruling in the case of Vega International. This case is likely to, once again, create considerable uncertainty regarding the VAT treatment of fuel supplies carried out using fuel cards. The uncertainty arising from the ECJ ruling in the case Auto Lease Holland in 2003 has thus been revived. The ECJ has reclassified the supplies and now regards this form of transaction as a granting of credit instead of a supply of goods. Not only oil companies, fuel card issuers and their customers, such as logistics and leasing companies, are affected. Companies active in the loading of electric vehicles and in other comparable business models must now also consider what this new ECJ judgement means for them.
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VAT News 24/2019
Federal Fiscal Court: VAT on copyright warnings
Warnings issued pursuant to copyright law are subject to VAT. This was decided by the Federal Fiscal Court in its decision of 13.02.2019 - XI R 1/17. The Court found that a warning given by a copyright holder to an infringer constitutes a taxable supply. In the Federal Fiscal Court’s view, a supply exists in the fact that the warning party gives the warned party the opportunity to avoid a legal dispute. The amount of reimbursement paid by the warned party is the remuneration for the supply. The decision raises follow-up questions. It is also important for other areas of intellectual property, e.g. trademark law.
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VAT News 23/2019
ECJ referral: Federal Fiscal Court raises doubts re VAT exemption for supplies of swimming lessons
According to the German tax courts, swimming lessons have, at least to date, undoubtedly fallen within the scope of the Union law VAT exemption as constituting part of “school and university tuition”. The ECJ, however, recently restricted the VAT exemption for the commercial supply of tuition services by defining the term “tuition” much more narrowly. This case law has now led to the Federal Fiscal Court raising doubts and referring three questions to the ECJ. The referral shows that the VAT exemption for the supply of commercial tuition services can currently not be determined with any significant degree of legal certainty.
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