A taxable person who is established in Sweden may be entitled to a refund of input tax relating to goods or services sold in other EU countries.
The right to a refund only applies if the input tax refers to acquisitions that are used for a turnover that is taxable or entails a right to a refund in the EU country where the turnover is made. It is also required that the turnover would have been taxable or would have entailed the right to a refund if it had been made in this country.
A transaction between two establishments in different countries within one and the same taxable person is not a turnover. This means that if an establishment in this country assists an establishment in another EU country with e.g. an administrative service, it is not a question of a turnover of an administrative service. Instead, the input tax on any costs for the administrative service is related to the turnover that the establishment in the other EU country has. This means that the right to a refund depends on the outgoing transactions in the other EU country. If these transactions are taxable or entail a right of refund in the other EU country and would have been taxable or would have entailed a right to a refund if they were made in this country, the refund may be relevant.
If there is no right of refund for all input tax, a distribution must be made according to the actual use of the goods or services acquired. When the use is to be assessed on a reasonable basis, different distribution keys can be used. It is always the distribution key that most accurately reflects the resource consumption in the business to be applied.
In this context, it is important to examine which turnover, ie which outgoing transaction or transactions, the input tax is related to.
If an acquisition partly refers to sales that do not give rise to a right to either deduction or repayment, a distribution may sometimes need to be made in several steps. This applies to e.g. if a taxable person has establishments in several countries. First, a distribution must normally be made between the consumption that takes place in Sweden and the consumption in the other EU country. In this distribution, e.g. turnover in each country is used. Thereafter, additional distributions may need to be made depending on which sales in the different countries entail the right to deduct and the right to repay, respectively.
In certain situations, it may instead be more appropriate to make a first distribution based on the internal invoicing that takes place between two establishments within one and the same taxable person. It can e.g. apply to acquisitions that are only indirectly used for one of the establishments. An example is a purchase that is used partly for sales in this country and partly for a supporting activity that the establishment in this country provides an establishment in another EU country.
Source: skatteverket.se
