ECJ: Businesses Entitled to VAT Refund When Incorrectly Charged and Invoice Correction Is Impossible

The ECJ ruled that if VAT is incorrectly charged on a transaction later reclassified as outside the scope of VAT, input VAT deduction is not allowed.
However, national tax systems must provide a practical way for businesses to obtain a refund when invoice correction is impossible due to expired deadlines.
Businesses cannot be left without remedy for VAT paid in error, upholding the principle of fiscal neutrality.
Greentech was entitled to request a refund of the input VAT directly from the Romanian VAT Authorities.
The judgment reinforces both the strict approach to input VAT deduction and the need to protect fiscal neutrality for businesses.

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.