Service offerings below cost price often result in an excess of input VAT. At the end of 2016, the V. Senate of the German Federal Fiscal Court assumed that an emerging asymmetry would indicate that the person performing the supply was not acting as a taxable person (KMLZ-Newsletter 8/2017). In this case, VAT deduction would not be possible. A new judgment of the XI. Senate clarifies that, when checking if a person is acting as a taxable person, all aspects of the individual case must be taken into account in an overall assessment. The decision, regarding the public sector, might also ultimately impact on the private sector.