Companies offering hire purchase agreements are regularly pre-financing the VAT for the exchequer before they receive the monies from their customers. In Finanzamt Goslar v Baumgarten sports and more GmbH (Case C-548/17), the Bundesfinanzhof expressed grave concerns as to whether the EU basic time of supply rule (i.e. the VAT due rule) should be applied unrestrictedly in cases with a time gap between VAT due date and payment due date. It argues that the general time of supply rule of PVD article 63 and its embedded obligation to pre-finance VAT violates fundamental principles of EU law. The case could have a profound impact on our understanding of the time of supply rule and therefore when VAT is due.
