On May 10, 2019 (C-371/19), the European Commission brought an
action against Germany for its input tax refund procedure for EU
taxable persons. In the view of the European Commission, Germany is
violating the relevant EU regulations through the practical design
of the input VAT reimbursement procedure. The Federal Tax Office
(Germany) does not request missing information or supporting
documents in the context of the examination of the applications,
but rather rejects the refund applications directly. In the
Commission's view, this procedure leads to inadmissible
discrimination against EU foreign taxable persons in cases where
such information can be submitted only after the deadline of
September 30. The Commission submits that the Federal Tax
Office's approach infringes the principle of VAT neutrality,
the principle of the effectiveness of the VAT refund regime, and
the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations.
