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The German Federal Fiscal Court passed its judgment (XI R 4/11) regarding VAT deduction for players‘ agent commissions on 28 August 2013. The key question is whether the players’ agents render services to the soccer club. The German Federal Fiscal Court considers an exchange of services to be given only in exceptional cases. The German Federal Fiscal Court could not determine whether such an exchange of services did occur in this particular legal case. The German Federal Fiscal Court has remitted this case back to the tax court of first instance.
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Within the EU two different interpretations of the special scheme for travel agents exist, the traveler-based approach and the customer-based approach. In cross-border transactions this could result in double-taxation or non-taxation. In its decisions of 26 September 2013, the ECJ came to the conclusion that the EC-VAT-Directive must be interpreted uniformly by following the customer-based approach. Consequently, the national regulations following the traveler-based approach, like Art. 25 of the German VAT Act, have to be put to the test.
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VAT News 27/2013
Currently, the fight against VAT fraud is on everyone’s mind. The EC-Directive on the Quick Reaction Mechanism as well as the EC-Directive on the optional application of the reverse-charge mechanism became effective on 15 September 2013. Furthermore, according to a recent study, 2011 VAT losses amounted to approximately 193 billion euro. Hence, it is not surprising that the EU member states are, in addition to VAT rate changes, focusing their attention on measures to fight tax fraud.
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