Case C-794/23, Finanzamt Österreich (VAT invoiced incorrectly to final consumers II): Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 1 August 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof – Austria) – Finanzamt Österreich v P GmbH (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Common system of value added tax (VAT) – Directive 2006/112/EC – Article 203 – Incorrect amount of VAT entered on the invoice – Article 238 – Simplified invoicing – Services invoiced to non-taxable persons and to taxable persons who do not have a right to deduct VAT – Obligation to pay the part of the VAT invoiced incorrectly – No risk of loss of tax revenue)
Date: 2025-08-01
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: VAT rate, consumer, invoicing, principle of proportionality, rights of the defence, tax collection, tax relief, taxpayer








C_202505181EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/5181


6.10.2025






Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 1 August 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof – Austria) – Finanzamt Österreich v P GmbH


(Case C-794/23,
                (1)
Finanzamt Österreich (VAT invoiced incorrectly to final consumers II))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common system of value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 203 - Incorrect amount of VAT entered on the invoice - Article 238 - Simplified invoicing - Services invoiced to non-taxable persons and to taxable persons who do not have a right to deduct VAT - Obligation to pay the part of the VAT invoiced incorrectly - No risk of loss of tax revenue)
(C/2025/5181)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Verwaltungsgerichtshof

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Finanzamt Österreich

Defendant: P GmbH

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 203 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as amended by Council Directive (EU) 2018/1695 of 6 November 2018,
must be interpreted as meaning that a taxable person who has supplied a service and who has stated on the invoice an amount of value added tax (VAT) calculated using the incorrect rate is not liable for the part of the VAT which was incorrectly invoiced to a non-taxable person, even if that taxable person has also supplied similar services to other taxable persons.










2.


Directive 2006/112, as amended by Directive 2018/1695,
must be interpreted as meaning that it is appropriate to classify as ‘final consumers who do not have a right to deduct input VAT’, within the meaning of the judgment of 8 December 2022, Finanzamt Österreich (VAT invoiced incorrectly to final consumers) (C-378/21, EU:C:2022:968), only non-taxable persons. Thus, taxable persons who, in a given situation, do not have a right to deduct input VAT are not covered by that concept.










3.


Directive 2006/112, as amended by Directive 2018/1695,
must be interpreted as not precluding, in the case of simplified invoicing under Article 238 of Directive 2006/112, as amended, a tax authority or a national court from using an estimate in order to determine the proportion of the invoices in respect of which a taxable person who has incorrectly invoiced VAT is liable for that tax under Article 203 of Directive 2006/112, as amended, provided that for the purposes of such an estimate, all the relevant circumstances are taken into account, and a taxable person, in compliance with the principles of fiscal neutrality and proportionality and the rights of the defence, from calling into question the results obtained by that method.






(1)  OJ C, C/2024/2587.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/5181/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)