No input VAT deduction from EDI invoices

Facts

In 1999, a taxable person issued only an EDI invoice, although at that time invoices had to be issued in paper form. Many years later, a paper invoice was issued and the plaintiff (the recipient of the invoice) would like to claim the input VAT deduction retroactively for the year 1999. The background to this claim is the recent case law of the ECJ and BFH, according to which the correction of an invoice can have retroactive effect under certain circumstances.

BFH decision

The decision concerns a complaint by the plaintiff against the tax court's refusal to allow an appeal. The BFH ruled that there were no grounds in the present case to justify allowing the appeal. In particular, the case was not of fundamental importance as it concerned expired law, and similar cases were not to be expected in any significant number. The EDI invoice was not to be regarded as a retroactively correctable invoice in 1999, but as a non-invoice. The paper invoice issued later was therefore to be regarded as a first-time invoice and had no retroactive effect.

Impacts

This decision concerns a situation that occurred before the legal authorisation of electronic invoices for input VAT deduction. It is therefore only relevant for old cases. The only thing that can be transferred to the present day is the affirmation that a correctable invoice must exist for a correction to have retroactive effect.

Author: Nadia Schulte