Order — ECLI:EU:C:2004:118
Date: 2004-03-03
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Free movement of goods;Value added tax
Concepts: Chargeable event, chargeability and collection of VAT;Obligation to pay
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment Tax provisions – Harmonisation of laws – Turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax – Supply of goods wrongly invoiced as being exempt from tax – Recovery, after the event, from the taxable person making the supply – Not a breach of the principle of fiscal neutrality – Tax on the later sale of the goods to the end user paid to the public purse – Not relevant (Council Directives 67/227 and 77/388) The principle of the neutrality of the common system of value added tax does not preclude a Member State from recovering value added tax, after the event, from a taxable person which has wrongly invoiced a supply of goods as being exempt from that tax. It is irrelevant, in that regard, whether the value added tax on the later sale of the goods concerned to the end user has been paid to the public purse or not. (see para. 3, operative part)