Minister Finansów v Jan Mateusiak.
Date: 2016-06-16
24


As a preliminary point, it should be borne in mind that, according to the structure of the system introduced by the VAT Directive, input taxes on goods or services used by a taxable person for his taxable transactions may be deducted. The deduction of input taxes is linked to the collection of output taxes. Where goods or services acquired by a taxable person are used for the purposes of transactions that are exempt or do not fall within the scope of VAT, no output tax can be collected and no input tax deducted. However, where goods or services are used for the purposes of transactions that are taxable as outputs, deduction of the input tax on them is required in order to avoid double taxation (see, to that effect, judgment of 30 March 2006 in Uudenkaupungin kaupunki, C‑184/04, EU:C:2006:214, paragraph 24, and order of 5 June 2014 in Gmina Międzyzdroje, C‑500/13, EU:C:2014:1750, paragraph 19).
25


In this respect, under Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive, the Member States may treat the retention of goods by a taxable person, or by his successors, in the event of cessation of a taxable economic activity, as a supply of goods for consideration, where the VAT on such goods became wholly or partly deductible upon their acquisition or upon their application in accordance with Article 18(a). Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive thus authorises Member States to adopt a special provision for situations in which a taxable person ceases to trade (see judgment of 17 May 2001 in Fischer and Brandenstein, C‑322/99 and C‑323/99, EU:C:2001:280, paragraph 86).
27


In that regard, it must be noted that the main objective of Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive is to avoid a situation where the final consumption of goods on which the VAT became deductible is untaxed following the cessation of the taxable economic activity, regardless of the causes or circumstances of that cessation (judgment of 8 May 2013 in Marinov, C‑142/12, EU:C:2013:292, paragraph 27).
28


The adjustment mechanism provided for in the VAT Directive is intended to enhance the precision of deductions so as to ensure the neutrality of VAT, with the result that transactions carried out at an earlier stage continue to give rise to the right to deduct only to the extent that they are used to make supplies subject to VAT. That mechanism thus aims to establish a close and direct relationship between the right to deduct input VAT paid and the use of the goods or services concerned for taxable output transactions (judgment of 18 October 2012 in TETS Haskovo, C‑234/11, EU:C:2012:644, paragraphs 30 and 31).
29


So far as concerns the existence of an obligation to make an adjustment to an input VAT deduction, Article 185(1) of the VAT Directive establishes the principle that such an adjustment must be made, inter alia, where, after the VAT return is made, some change occurs in the factors used to determine the amount of the deduction (judgments of 18 October 2012 in TETS Haskovo, C‑234/11, EU:C:2012:644, paragraph 32, and 13 March 2014 in FIRIN, C‑107/13, EU:C:2014:151, paragraph 51).
30


The period laid down in Article 187 of the VAT Directive for adjustment of deductions makes it possible to avoid inaccuracies in the calculation of deductions and unjustified advantages or disadvantages for a taxable person where, in particular, changes in the factors initially taken into consideration in order to determine the amount of deductions occur after the declaration has been made. The likelihood of such changes is particularly significant in the case of capital goods, which are often used over a number of years, during which the purposes to which they are put may alter (see, to that effect, judgment of 30 March 2006 in Uudenkaupungin kaupunki, C‑184/04, EU:C:2006:214, paragraph 25, and order of 5 June 2014 in Gmina Międzyzdroje, C‑500/13, EU:C:2014:1750, paragraph 20).
31


It follows that the purpose of tax being levied on the retention of goods on which VAT became deductible pursuant to Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive is indeed similar to the purpose of the adjustment mechanism in so far as it is a matter, first, of avoiding giving an unjustified economic advantage to a taxable person compared to a final consumer who buys the goods and pays VAT on them, and, secondly, of ensuring a correspondence between deduction of input tax and charging of output tax (see, to that effect, by analogy, judgment of 14 September 2006 in Wollny, C‑72/05, EU:C:2006:573, paragraphs 35 and 36 and the case-law cited).
38


The taxation provided for in Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive takes into account changes to the value of business assets throughout the duration of their use for business purposes because, in accordance with Article 74 of the VAT Directive, for transactions such as those referred to in Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive, the taxable amount is to be the purchase price of the goods or of similar goods or, in the absence of a purchase price, the cost price, determined at the time when those transactions take place. In the event of the cessation of the taxable economic activity, the taxable amount of the transaction is the value of the goods in question determined at the time of that cessation, which therefore takes into account the change in the value of those assets between their acquisition and the cessation (see, in particular, judgment of 8 May 2013 in Marinov, C‑142/12, EU:C:2013:292, paragraph 33).