Who is responsible for an empty invoice issued by an employee? The employer (VAT taxpayer)?

• The question of who is responsible for an empty invoice issued by an employee without the employer’s knowledge and consent arises in daily business practice.
• The case has been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling.
• The Advocate General of the CJEU has opined that, in principle, the tax administration should not enforce VAT on the entrepreneur.
• The case involves falsification of invoices by an employee without the company’s knowledge or consent.
• The employee issued invoices outside the company’s system and did not include them in the tax declarations.
• The total amount of VAT evasion was nearly 1.5 million PLN.
• The employer was deemed to have failed to exercise due diligence in preventing the fraudulent activity.
• The employer’s lack of proper supervision and organization of work led to the discovery of irregularities during a tax authority’s cross-check.
• The tax authority considered the invoices as empty invoices and held the employer responsible for paying VAT on them.
• The case has raised questions about the employer’s liability for falsified invoices by an employee.

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.

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