Greek Supreme Court: Brussels Head Office and Greek Branch Are One VAT Taxable Person

Summary 

• Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court (Judgment No. 1998/2025) held that a foreign company’s Greek branch and its head office form a single taxable person for VAT, so transactions between them fall outside the scope of VAT. 

• Output transactions contracted, costed and invoiced centrally by the Belgian head office to airline members were attributable to the branch, allowing recovery of local input VAT without separate local invoicing. 

• The Court confirmed that a non-profit character does not, by itself, prevent an entity from carrying on an independent economic activity for VAT purposes. 

Extended article 

Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court (Council of State) has dismissed the tax authorities’ appeal in a dispute concerning the Greek branch of a Belgian non-profit cooperative that provided telecommunications services to international airline members, financed by member contributions and invoiced centrally from its Brussels head office. For the 1998 period, the branch declared a VAT credit balance from input tax on expenses covered by remittances from the head office and sought a refund on the basis that the corresponding output transactions were exempt as services linked to international air transport. 

The Court held that the Greek branch and the Brussels head office constituted a single taxable person for VAT, so transactions between them were outside the scope of VAT, while output transactions contracted, costed and invoiced centrally by the head office to the airline members were attributable to the branch. On that basis, the branch was not required to issue separate local invoices to treat the corresponding input VAT as deductible or refundable. The judgment aligns with the FCE Bank principle (Case C-210/04) on head office–branch dealings. 

The Court further confirmed that the branch carried on an independent economic activity despite its non-profit statutes, since it acted against consideration received from its members, irrespective of whether that consideration amounted to a profit. As the tax authorities’ cassation grounds did not properly challenge these core findings, the appeal was dismissed in its entirety. Judgment No. 1998/2025 was published on 5 November 2025 and reported on 31 July 2026. 

Sources: Taxheaven – StE 1998/2025 (in Greek); Hellenic Council of State. 

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