Determination of late payment interest for VAT does not violate Union law

• The Federal Fiscal Court in Düsseldorf ruled that the imposition of late payment interest on value-added tax does not violate EU law.
• The case involved a dispute between the taxpayer and the tax office regarding the imposition of late payment interest under § 233a of the German Fiscal Code.
• The taxpayer claimed that the interest calculation violated EU law because it did not take into account the specific circumstances of the case.
• The court rejected this argument, stating that the calculation of interest falls under procedural law, which is subject to the autonomy of member states.
• The court also noted that the principle of fiscal neutrality does not apply to ancillary tax obligations such as interest payments.
• The court found that the imposition of late payment interest in this case was justified and did not violate EU law.
• The court also mentioned that the taxpayer may be eligible for a waiver of the interest payment under § 163 and § 227 of the German Fiscal Code if it leads to an unfair result.

Source: haufe.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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