Comments on ECJ case C-234/24 (Brose Prievidza):No VAT Exemption for Tooling Without Physical Movement

• The Court of Justice ruled that VAT exemption for intra-Community supply requires actual physical movement of goods to another Member State.
• The supply of tooling (such as moulds and dies) is considered an independent transaction with its own economic purpose, not automatically part of the exempt supply of components produced with it.
• In the Brose Prievidza case, tooling remained in Bulgaria despite ownership transfer within the group, so VAT exemption did not apply.
• The Court clarified that functional or economic links between tooling and produced components do not justify treating the tooling supply as VAT-exempt without physical movement.
• VAT refunds can be refused if there is no physical transfer of goods, even if the tooling is used for producing VAT-exempt components.

Source: vat-consult.be

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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