Judgment of 26 April 2018 in Case C‑81/17 – Zabrus Siret SRL
Source: Curia
Decision
Articles 167, 168, 179, 180 and 182 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as amended by Council Directive 2010/45/EU of 13 July 2010, and the principles of effectiveness, fiscal neutrality and proportionality must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which, by way of derogation from the five-year limitation period imposed by national law for the correction of value added tax (VAT) returns, prevents, in circumstances such as those in the main proceedings, a taxable person from making such a correction in order to claim his right of deduction on the sole ground that that correction relates to a period that has already been the subject of a tax inspection.
Dispute
The dispute in the main proceedings and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling are as follows:
Zabrus was the subject of a VAT inspection for the period from 1 May 2014 to 30 November 2014. After the audit was closed, Zabrus requested a VAT refund relating to the period that was audited.
The tax authorities refused to reimburse the VAT on the ground (in short) that the period was closed with an audit, and no reasons for corrections etc. were found during the audit.
The ECJ rules that it is not allowed for Member States to prevent, in circumstances such as those in the main proceedings, a taxable person from making a correction in order to claim his right of deduction on the sole ground that that correction relates to a period that has already been the subject of a tax inspection.
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