An invoice which does not contain a sufficient description of the service cannot be used to exercise a possible right of deduction

According to § 15 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 No. 1 Sentence 2 of the German Value Added Tax Act (UStG), a prerequisite for the deduction of input tax is that the entrepreneur has an invoice issued in accordance with §§ 14, 14a UStG. In particular, the invoice must contain an adequate description of the services. In the case decided, the invoices in which the applicant and appellant sought to deduct input tax did not contain a sufficient description of the service to make it possible to determine what was the subject of the service. According to the actual findings of the FG, supplementary documents which the first-deciding Finance Court (FG) of the Saarland could have been obliged to take into account beyond the invoices were also not available for lack of written agreements, so that even on such a basis, input tax could not be deducted in the years in dispute. (Federal Court of Finance, decision of 18.5.2020 – XI B 105/19)

Source: steuerberater-berning.de

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