- A ship broker who informs a port service provider that a shipping company will be contracting them for services related to a specific ship is considered to be providing a single brokerage service, not multiple individual brokerages for various services.
- This brokerage service is not exempt from tax if it leads to a variety of different transactions that are not yet fully determined in terms of type and scope at the time of the brokerage.
- The case involves a GmbH operating a seaport forwarding business from 2014 to 2016, providing services related to the clearance of ships.
- The company invoiced the shipping companies for services, separating tax-exempt and taxable services, with invoices sent to the ship broker.
- The ship broker received a commission based on a percentage of the fees charged by the company, with separate credits issued for tax-exempt and taxable services.
- Following an external audit, the tax authority denied the company’s input tax deduction for the commissions paid to the ship broker.
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.
