Маya Маrinova ET v Direktor na Direktsia ‘Obzhalvane i danachno-osiguritelna praktika’ Veliko Tarnovo pri Tsentralno upravlenie na Natsionalnata agentsia za prihodite

In Маya Маrinova ET v Direktor na Direktsia ‘Obzhalvane i danachno-osiguritelna praktika’ Veliko Tarnovo pri Tsentralno upravlenie na Natsionalnata agentsia za prihodite (Case C-576/15) (5 October 2016) the CJEU found that national legislation which allows tax authorities to assume that goods absent from a warehouse have been sold does not infringe the principle of fiscal neutrality.

Ms Marinova ran a shop in Bulgaria (MM) selling food and other items as a sole trader. The Bulgarian tax authorities had discovered that MM had been issued invoices for tobacco and food products which were recorded in the accounts of the issuers but not in those of MM; and that MM had not deducted VAT in relation to these invoices.

The Bulgarian tax authorities took the view that MM had in fact received those goods and they assumed as the goods were not in its warehouse that MM...