Sea Chefs Cruise Services v Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics

Cathya Djanogly

In Sea Chefs Cruise Services v Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics (Case C-133/18) (17 January 2019) the advocate general considered that the fact that a trader had failed to comply with an information request within the time limit provided by Directive 2008/9/EC art 20(2) was not fatal to its claim for a refund.

Sea Chefs a German company had applied to the French tax authorities for the refund of a VAT credit. The claim was dismissed as a result of Sea Chefs’ failure to respond within the time limit to a request for further information sent by the French tax authorities. The issue was whether Sea Chefs should be allowed to regularise its situation before the French tax court.

The AG observed that although the right to deduct is a ‘fundamental principle of the common system of VAT’ it is subject to...

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