Case C‑664/16

Lucreţiu Hadrian Vădan

v

Agenţia Naţională de Administrare Fiscală — Direcţia Generală de Soluţionare a Contestaţiilor

and

Direcţia Generală Regională a Finanţelor Publice Braşov — Administraţia Judeţeană a Finanţelor Publice Alba

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Curtea de Apel Alba Iulia)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common system of value added tax — Directive 2006/112/EC — Articles 167, 168, 178 and 273 — Scope of the right of deduction — Absence of invoices — Recourse to a court-commissioned expert report — Burden of proof of the right of deduction — Principles of fiscal neutrality and proportionality)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 21 November 2018

Harmonisation of fiscal legislation — Common system of value added tax — Deduction of input tax — Obligations of the taxable person — Holding of an invoice containing certain information — Absence of invoice or any other document proving the right of deduction — Providing other evidence — Recourse to a court-commissioned expert report — No right of deduction solely on the basis of that court-commissioned expert report

(Council Directive 2006/112, Arts 167, 168, 178(a) and 179)

Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, in particular Articles 167, 168, 178(a) and 179, and the principles of the neutrality of value added tax (VAT) and proportionality, must be interpreted as meaning that, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, a taxable person who is unable to provide evidence of the amount of input VAT he has paid, by producing invoices or any other document, cannot benefit from a right to deduct VAT solely on the basis of an assessment resulting from an expert report commissioned by a national court.

(see para. 48, operative part)