German law is affected by the pending ECJ proceedings. According to § 15 Paragraph 1 Clause 1 No. 2 UStG, the entrepreneur can deduct the resulting EUSt for items that have been imported into the country for his company as VSt. According to Section 15.8 Paragraph 4 UStAE, such input tax deduction requires that the entrepreneur has the power to dispose of the imported item. This administrative view is in line with the constant case law of the BFH. Most recently, in his judgment of 11.11.2015, VR 68/14, – giving up his doubts previously expressed in the judgment of 23.09.2004, VR 58/03 – this legal opinion was expressly confirmed.
Another question arises to what extent the ECJ decision “FedEx” v. 10.07.2019, C-26/18, has an impact on this question. In the “FedEx” decision, the CJEU ruled that the goods must have entered the European Union’s economic cycle for the purpose of consumption. In the present case, the goods were apparently exported again and this was intended in advance.
Source: awb-international.de
