The Compatibility of Late Payment Interest on VAT with Union Law

• The question of whether the imposition of late payment interest on value added tax (VAT) is in line with EU law is controversial and debated in the literature.
• The issue of the compatibility of late payment interest with EU law was recently addressed by the Saarland Fiscal Court, following a similar case in the Düsseldorf Fiscal Court.
• The Saarland Fiscal Court concluded that the provisions on the imposition of late payment interest on VAT do not violate EU law.
• The court found that the national law does not violate the principles of neutrality, proportionality, equivalence, and effectiveness.
• The case involved a GmbH that was subject to a tax investigation by the tax authorities.

Source: datenbank.nwb.de

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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