Forum Contributions: CJEU Case Law on Exercising Rights Under EU VAT: Is There a Golden Thread in the Distinction Between Substantive and Formal Conditions?

Exercising rights under EU Value Added Tax (‘VAT’) law (for example recovering input tax) is often subject to certain conditions. A distinction however exists between substantive and formal requirements: Non-fulfilment of the latter does not need to be fatal for a taxpayer’s claim. That being the case, the question arises how a condition can be classified as either ‘substantive’ or ‘formal’. The author summarizes the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) in the area and notes that the Court has so far refrained from providing an all-encompassing test. The article therefore explores whether a golden thread can be identified and analyses if the Court may have had a general principle in mind when labelling conditions as ‘formal’ in judicial precedent. VAT, CJEU, substantive, formal, invoice, intra-Community supply