- CIT Coint Invest is a company based in Liechtenstein that develops, manufactures, and trades coins
- On May 19, 2019, CIT Coint Invest transferred several coin kits commemorating 300 years of Liechtenstein to Austria
- Each kit contained two silver coins, three gold coins, and a special stamp
- At import, a request was made to release the coin kits into free circulation and a customs invoice was presented with a 20 percent VAT indicated
- The VAT was paid but a request for a refund on the VAT for the imported gold coins was denied by Austrian customs
- The gold coins were listed in an annual publication by the European Commission, identifying them as investment gold which qualifies for a VAT exemption for that year
- CIT Coint argued that the listing of the gold coins should automatically exempt them from VAT based on the legally binding nature of the list, regardless of other material criteria
- However, their request for VAT exemption was rejected because not all conditions of Article 344 of the VAT Directive were met
- The referring judge has raised preliminary questions about the binding nature of the list entry
Source: nlfiscaal.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.
