UAB “P” v Dyrektor Izby Skarbowej w B.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2021:215
• Docket Number: C-48/20
• Date: 18 March 2021
• Celex Number: 62020CJ0048
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Provisional text

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Sixth Chamber)

18 March 2021 (*)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Taxation – Common system of value added tax (VAT) – Directive 2006/112/EC – Article 203 – Taxes improperly invoiced – Good faith on the part of the issuer of the invoice – Risk of loss of tax revenue – Obligations of the Member States to provide for the possibility of adjusting tax improperly invoiced – Principles of fiscal neutrality and proportionality)

In Case C‑48/20,

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny (Supreme Administrative Court, Poland), made by decision of 15 November 2019, received at the Court on 28 January 2020, in the proceedings

UAB ‘P.’

v

Dyrektor Izby Skarbowej w B.,

THE COURT (Sixth Chamber),

composed of L. Bay Larsen, President of the Chamber, R. Silva de Lapuerta (Rapporteur), Vice-President of the Court, and M. Safjan, Judge,

Advocate General: J. Kokott,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

having regard to the written procedure,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

– UAB ‘P.’, by D. Kosacka, doradca podatkowy,

– the Polish Government, by B. Majczyna, acting as Agent,

– the European Commission, by N. Gossement and J. Szczodrowski, acting as Agents,

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

Judgment

1 This request for a preliminary ruling primarily concerns the interpretation of Article 203 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (OJ 2006 L 347, p. 1) and the principle of proportionality.

2 The request has been made in proceedings between UAB ‘P.’ (‘P.’) and the Dyrektor Izby Skarbowej w B. (Director of the Tax Chamber, B., Poland), concerning the payment of value added tax (VAT) which has been improperly invoiced.

Legal context

European Union law

3 Article 203 of Directive 2006/112 provides:

‘VAT shall be payable by any person who enters the VAT on an invoice.’

Polish law

4 Article 108(1) of the ustawa o podatku od towarów i usług (Law on the tax on goods and services), of 11 March 2004 (Dz. U, of 2004, No 54, item 535), in the version applicable to the dispute in the main proceedings (Dz. U of 2016, item 710) (‘the Law on VAT’) provides as follows:

‘Where a legal person, an organisational unit without legal personality or a natural person issues an invoice in which the amount of tax is indicated, that person or entity shall be obliged to pay that tax.’

The dispute in the main proceedings and the question referred for a preliminary ruling

5 P. is a company established in Lithuania which made fuel cards available to Lithuanian transport companies allowing those transport companies to fill up with fuel at certain service stations located in Polish territory.

6 Taking the view that its commercial activity consisted of purchasing fuel from Polish service stations for the purpose of subsequently reselling it to Lithuanian transport companies, by means of fuel cards, P. issued invoices for the supply of fuel to those transport companies, indicating an amount of VAT.

7 By decision of 27 June 2014, the Naczelnik Urzędu Skarbowego w Białymstoku (Director of the Tax Office, Białystok, Poland) determined the following: (i) that P. owed a debt in respect of VAT concerning the period from March to December 2011, (ii) an overpayment of tax for the periods between March and June 2011 and (iii) an amount of VAT payable under Article 108 of the Law on VAT. In addition, he took the view that P. was not entitled to benefit from the right to deduct the input VAT paid in respect of the invoices issued by the service stations for the purchase of fuel.

8 P. brought an administrative appeal against that decision before the Dyrektor Izby Skarbowej w B. (Director of the Tax Chamber, B., Poland).

9 By decision of 2 October 2014, the Director of the Tax Chamber, B., annulled the decision of the Director of the Tax Office, B., of 27 June 2014, on the ground that he had determined the place of taxation of the applicant’s activities in breach of the provisions of the Law on VAT. The Director of the Tax Chamber also ruled on the substance of the case, determining P’s VAT liability.

10 In the decision of 2 October 2014, the Director of the Tax Chamber, B., confirmed, in accordance with the view of the Director of the Tax Office, B., that P. had neither purchased nor supplied fuel in Polish territory. In his view, the fuel was supplied directly by Polish service stations to Lithuanian transport companies, which, by means of fuel cards purchased from P., refuelled at...