- The European Court of Justice ruled on January 30, 2024, that an employee who uses their employer’s data to issue false invoices must pay the VAT indicated on those invoices
- This obligation applies only if the employer, a VAT taxpayer, has exercised due diligence in monitoring their employee’s actions
- The case involved a Polish company whose employee issued 1679 empty invoices from January 2010 to April 2014 without reflecting real transactions, totaling about 320,000 EUR
- These invoices were used without the knowledge or consent of the employer to obtain undue VAT refunds, while the appropriate tax was not paid to the state budget
- Tax authorities issued a decision on the VAT due from the company after finding that the fraud was possible due to lack of supervision and proper organization within the company
- The company appealed this decision to the Supreme Administrative Court, which referred the case to the European Court of Justice to determine who is responsible for the VAT on the fraudulent invoices
- The Court decided that VAT is not due from the issuer listed on the invoice if they acted in good faith and the tax authority knows the identity of the person who actually issued the invoice
Source: ksiegowosc.infor.pl
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.
