Case law note: The CJEU Confirms that the Amount of Interest Normally Payable Under National Law on Overpaid VAT Cannot Be Reduced

Abstract

On 28 February 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereafter ‘CJEU’) ruled in the Nidera BV case (C-387/16) (CJEU, 28 Feb. 2018, Case C-387/16, Nidera BV, ECLI:EU:C:2018:121.) that Article 183 of the VAT Directive, read in the light of the principle of fiscal neutrality, must be interpreted as precluding a reduction in the amount of interest normally payable under national law on overpaid VAT which was not refunded in due time for reasons connected to circumstances not attributable to the taxable person, such as the high amount of that interest when compared with the amount of overpaid VAT, the period of time during which the overpayment was not refunded and the underlying reasons for this, as well as the losses actually incurred by the taxable person. In previous case it already became clear that overpaid tax must be refunded to the taxable person concerned within a reasonable period. If not, the taxable person must be compensated in the form of default interest. (Opinion AG, 28 Feb. 2018, Case C-387/16, Nidera BV, ECLI:EU: C:2017:740, paragraph 1.)