Diritto ed Economia dell'ImpresaISSN 2499-3158
G. Giappichelli Editore

30/09/2020 - UE: lawyers are VAT taxable persons

argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: UE lawyers - VAT regime - taxability

On July 17, 2020, the U.E. in the judgment relating to case C-424/19 stated that the person practicing the activity of lawyer is a taxable person for VAT since EU law prevents that, in the context of a VAT dispute, the national court applies the principle of res judicata, if this dispute does not concern a tax period identical to that of the dispute that gave rise to the final decision, nor does it have the same object, and the application of this principle constitutes an obstacle to taking into account EU VAT legislation. Specifically, this was a law firm based in Romania which, in May 2015, had requested the Public Finance Administration to be deleted, with effect from 2002, from the register of VAT taxable persons with consequent request for refund of the VAT received by this administration in the period between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2014, as it would have been entered by mistake in this register.
In support of the proposed appeal, the law firm had availed itself of the res judicata authority, recalling a sentence of 30 April 2018, which became definitive, with which the same judge had declared that a taxpayer who practices the profession of lawyer does not exercise no economic activity and, consequently, it cannot be considered to carry out operations for the delivery of goods or the provision of services, since the contracts concluded with its customers are legal aid contracts and not service provision contracts