In the ruling, the court reasons that compensation of the losses is a taxpayer’s right and that it does not believe the posterior presentation of a self-assessment where a different distribution of the losses is established to go against previous conduct, given that its is within the law, which was never the object of discussion here. The argument of protecting legal security was not accepted by the court. Finally, the ruling cancels the administrative act in which the administration does not accept the new distribution of the losses.
In a similar way, the ruling of the Supreme Court of 4.07.2007 considers the appeal of a company which was denied the possibility of requesting a refund of the VAT over the four years in which compensation for of the excess VAT paid could be asserted.
In this case the administration had been denied the right to receive a VAT refund for the reason that they had not presented it correctly in the corresponding form. According to the administration, by not requesting it the right to the refund was not exercised, meaning that the taxpayer could not go against its own actions.
In its ruling the court establishes that the use of standardised forms aims to facilitate the work of the tax administration, but under no circumstances should they provoke the loss of civil rights like the deduction of paid VAT, with VAT designed to be a neutral tax for companies. To limit this right is to limit the merit of the nature of this tax. The ruling concludes that the taxpayer has the right to the VAT refund, notwithstanding the way in which it was declared. To not accept this would result in an unjust enrichment for the administration.
For further information, please contact Javier Valls Aracil: [email protected]