- The case involves a dispute between the plaintiff and the tax office regarding a direct claim for reimbursement of incorrectly invoiced VAT.
- The plaintiff was denied an input tax deduction based on charges from a customer of M-GmbH, assuming M-GmbH received other services from this customer.
- Due to the customer’s insolvency proceedings in 2012, the plaintiff did not pursue refund claims against the customer.
- M-GmbH supplied food at a reduced tax rate and made payments to the customer labeled as bonuses, which included VAT amounts calculated at the standard rate.
- The plaintiff believed it was entitled to input tax deduction for these bonus payments, assuming the customer provided services like advertising to M-GmbH.
- The customer also considered the bonus payments as compensation for services and taxed them without correcting the VAT assessment before the statute of limitations expired.
- An external audit led the tax office to a different conclusion regarding the plaintiff’s tax obligations.
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.
