The Direct Claim as a Solution for Failed VAT Refund and Statute of Limitations

• If a recipient of a service has paid too much VAT to the provider and fails to deduct input tax, they rely on the provider to refund the corresponding tax amount.
• If the civil law repayment fails, the recipient can rely on the Reemtsma claim (direct claim) as a solution.
• The European Court of Justice clarifies that the Reemtsma claim also applies when the provider invokes civil law limitation against the recipient.
• The European Court of Justice restricts the correction by the provider under § 14c UStG and confirms an interest claim by the recipient.
• If the recipient is unable to enforce the civil law claim or it is excessively difficult, they may have a direct claim.

Source: datenbank.nwb.de

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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