Mednis SIA v Valsts ieņēmumu dienes

In the Latvian case of Mednis SIA v Valsts ieņēmumu dienests (CJEU Case C-525/11) the CJEU held that article 183 of Directive 2006/112/EC ‘must be interpreted as not authorising the tax authority of a Member State to defer without undertaking a specific analysis and solely on the basis of an arithmetical calculation the refund of part of the excess VAT which has arisen during a one-month tax period pending the examination by that authority of the taxable person’s annual tax return’.

Why it matters: Article 183 of Directive 2006/112/EC provides that ‘where for a given tax period the amount of deductions exceeds the amount of VAT due the Member States may in accordance with conditions which they shall determine either make a refund or carry the excess forward to the following period’. The CJEU held that this did not authorise a...