Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 13 January 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom — United Kingdom) — Zipvit Ltd v The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

(Case C-156/20) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common system of value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 168 - Right of deduction - Supply of postal services mistakenly exempted - VAT deemed to be included in the commercial price of the supply for the purpose of exercising the right of deduction - Not included - Concept of VAT ‘due or paid’)

(2022/C 109/08)

Language of the case: English

Referring court

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Zipvit Ltd

Defendant: The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

Operative part of the judgment

Article 168(a) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax must be interpreted as meaning that value added tax (VAT) cannot be regarded as being due or paid, within the meaning of that provision, and is therefore not deductible by the taxable person, in the case where, first, that person and its supplier have mistakenly assumed, on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of EU law by the national authorities, that the supplies at issue were exempt from VAT and that, consequently, the invoices issued did not refer to it, in a situation where the contract between those two persons provides that, if that tax were due, the recipient of the supply should bear the cost of it, and, second, no step to recover the VAT was taken in good time, with the result that any action by the supplier and the tax and customs administration to recover the unpaid VAT is time-barred.

(1)  OJ C 215, 29.6.2020.