Nuremberg Tax Court Ruling: No Input Tax Deduction Without Control in Vehicle Trade Transactions

• Input tax deduction requires a delivery in the VAT sense, involving the transfer of control over an item. Mere participation in a supply chain without control is insufficient.
• A car dealer acting only as an intermediary without obtaining or transferring control over vehicles does not make a delivery but provides another service.
• Economic integration of a GmbH into a sole proprietorship requires more than shared office use or a managerial position; functional economic interconnection is needed.
• Input tax deduction is not allowed if there is no economic integration, even if there was a mistaken assessment of a VAT group. Trust in previous differing tax authority assessments does not provide protection without a binding promise.
• Input tax deduction fails if there is no actual delivery in the VAT sense. The recipient must prove receipt of a delivery and bears the burden of proof.

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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