Case C‑8/17

Biosafe — Indústria de Reciclagens SA

v

Flexipiso — Pavimentos SA

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Value added tax (VAT) — Directive 2006/112/EC — Articles 63, 167, 168, 178 to 180, 182 and 219 — Principle of fiscal neutrality — Right to deduct VAT — Period allowed by national law for exercising that right — Deduction of additional VAT paid to the State that was the subject of documents rectifying the initial invoices following a tax adjustment — The date from which the period starts to run)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber), 12 April 2018

Harmonisation of fiscal legislation — Common system of value added tax — Deduction of input tax — Rules governing exercise of the right of deduction — Temporal effect of the correction of an invoice — National legislation laying down a period for the exercise of that right which starts to run from the date of issue of the initial invoice — Refusal to grant a right to deduct after the expiry of that period — Not permissible

(Council Directive 2006/112, Arts 63, 167, 168, 178 to 180, 182 and 219)

Articles 63, 167, 168, 178 to 180, 182 and 219 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, and also the principle of fiscal neutrality, must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State pursuant to which, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings in which, following a tax adjustment, additional value added tax (VAT) was paid to the State and was the subject of documents rectifying the initial invoices several years after the supply of the goods in question, the right to deduct VAT is to be refused on the ground that the period laid down by that legislation for the exercise of that right started to run from the date of issue of those initial invoices and had expired.

(see para. 44, operative part)