- The management fee was reduced because the relevant company faced financial problems.
- EU case law allows for the actual amount charged to be taken into account in this situation.
- A VAT entrepreneur engaged in mortgage and credit mediation, real estate management, and management activities for A bv.
- A bv encountered financial problems and their mortgage lender demanded a reduction in the fee from €100,000 to €75,000 per year.
- The entrepreneur invoiced the lower amount in 2015 and 2016 and recorded a memorandum entry of €50,000 as “To be invoiced” in 2016.
- The tax inspector imposed a VAT assessment with a penalty of 25% for both tax evasion and failure to submit supplementary returns.
- The court ruled that the inspector was justified in not considering the fee reduction because the entrepreneur did not issue corrective invoices.
- The penalties for gross negligence were also deemed appropriate, and there was no double penalty for the same offense.
- The appeals court reduced the VAT assessment by €10,500 because it was established that the entrepreneur had only invoiced and received €150,000 in 2015 and 2016.
- EU case law allows for the actual amount charged to be considered, regardless of the inclusion of a “To be invoiced” amount in the records.
- The inspector stated that the penalties could be dropped due to the reduction in the VAT assessment.
- The court noted that the penalties were unjustified as gross negligence had not been proven.
- The exact actions of the entrepreneur could not be determined.
Source: taxence.nl
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.
