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tag: VAT

Open season for VAT number shopping?

Dániel Veres | 14 August 2018
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Dániel Veres

In its judgement passed a few weeks ago, the treatment of European Court of Justice (ECJ) was flexible in the interpretation of the VAT “triangular transactions”. While this decision in favour of the taxpayer creates a tax planning opportunity for businesses involved in international trade of goods, it pays off to be cautions on the other side.

Bringing VAT “back from the dead”

Tamás Fehér | 24 July 2018
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Tamás Fehér

Companies are faced with countless situations where, for reasons beyond their control, they are unable to collect the money owed to them, including its VAT part. In such cases the tax authority often refuses to allow the reclaim of the lost VAT even where this would not incur a loss for the budget. Based on recent judgements by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), however, the VAT should be recoverable in many cases of this kind.

Are we mischarging the VAT on leasing?

Tamás Fehér | 11 May 2018
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Tamás Fehér

Following the recent reinterpretation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of the definition of closed-end finance leasing, a new Advocate General (AG) opinion has exploded another “VAT bomb” in relation to current practice. For many years, leasing companies have divided the fees payable under finance lease contracts into a VATable and a non-VATable part, but the latest AG opinion states that the whole lease fee should be liable for VAT in its integrity. This could have serious implications for the Hungarian leasing market too, so it is worth keeping an eye on how the case progresses.

Tags:
EU, lease, VAT

Sometimes less is more

Tamás Fehér | 28 March 2018
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Tamás Fehér

Our traditional survey again looks at how many types of taxes there are in Hungary. The number of Hungarian taxes has fallen by one again this year, so we’ve counted 58 this time. The decrease, however, is of a technical nature only, while at the same time we continue to live with taxes such as the seemingly ineradicable charge payable on household employees or the newly introduced poster tax.

VAT on public-purpose investments: property developers can breathe a sigh of relief

Tamás Fehér | 2 October 2017
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Tamás Fehér

In 2009 the Supreme Court made it clear that the VAT on public-purpose investments related to property developments is deductible if it would not be possible to implement the development without such investment. Recently, however, some alarm was unexpectedly caused by the preliminary opinion of the advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a similar, Bulgarian case, which recommended prohibiting the tax deduction right. Although the ECJ’s judgement published in the middle of last week did not follow the advocate general’s opinion, it did make exercising the deduction right subject to some strict conditions.

Exactly what it seems

Tamás Fehér | 19 April 2017
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Tamás Fehér

One of the most frequent areas of dispute between the tax authority and taxpayers relates to the conditions under which a taxable entity participating in a chain transaction can deduct the VAT passed on to it. The tax authority (NAV) was recently struck another blow in the tussle when the Supreme Court, in a precedent-setting ruling, took issue with the tax authority’s practice of regularly reclassifying the participants in chain transactions as agents. What’s more, the Curia’s ruling goes significantly further, and questions in general the tax authority’s right to reclassify the transactions of taxable entities on a whim.

Still too many...

Tamás Fehér | 27 March 2017
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Tamás Fehér

In our traditional beginning-of-year review, we again counted the number of taxes levied in Hungary today. This time we got 59. Although the number of taxes has decreased by one since last year, the scale and structure of the tax system has not changed. In terms of tax revenue generated, VAT continues to top the list, bringing in approximately HUF 3,300 billion in 2016.

End to an unjust fine?

Ádám Fischer | 3 March 2017
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Ádám Fischer

Under current practice the Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) fines taxpayers that are caught with a VAT shortfall even if the budget has sustained no losses. An opinion recently published by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice could spell the end for this extremely unfair and much criticised procedure.

Tags:
EU, tax penalty, VAT
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Who is this blog addressed to?

The law is constantly in flux. While many people may find this intimidating, for us it’s precisely what makes it so exciting. We’d like to share this attitude with businesspeople and managers, and with those who just have an interest in business law, in the form of a regularly updated blog that discusses the latest tax law and commercial law issues in an accessible style. Feel free to send your questions and suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover to blog@jalsovszky.com.

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