INTERNATIONAL TAX PLAZA - The opinion of the Advocate General in Case C-516/14 Barlis 06 – Investimentos Imobiliários e Turísticos has been published (VAT

On February 18, 2016 on the website of the Court of Justice of the European Union the opinion of Advocate General Kokott in Case C‑516/14 Barlis 06 – Investimentos Imobiliários e Turísticos SA versus Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira was published (ECLI:EU:C:2016:101). Unfortunately the opinion is not available in the English language, but it is available in several other languages.

Below we have tried to make an unofficial translation of the proposals the Advocate General makes in its conclusion.

An invoice that only contains the description "legal services" to describe the nature of the services rendered meets the requirements of Article 226, Paragraph 6 of Directive 2006/112/EC, unless the national law in accordance with the EU law provides of a different VAT-regime for certain legal services.

An invoice that only contains the description "legal services rendered during the period from … through to date" or "legal services rendered to date" to describe the scope of the services rendered does not meet the requirements of Article 226, Paragraph 6 of Directive 2006/112/EC.

An invoice that only contains the description "legal services rendered to date" to provide information regarding the date on which the services are rendered does not meet the requirements of Article 226, Paragraph 7 of Directive 2006/112/EC.

According to Article 178, under a) of Directive 2006/112/EC for being able to exercise the right to deduct input tax it is in principle not sufficient that the recipient of the invoice, being the party that would like to apply the deduction, completes the date that contrary to Article 226, Paragraph 6 or Paragraph 7 is missing with other information, unless it regards documents that are to be considered itself as being part of the invoice. In such case the right to deduct input tax can be exercised without any corrections being made to the invoice, in case such correction can no longer fulfill its control function on the side of the issuer of the invoice.

Click here to be forwarded to the text of the opinion as available on the website of the CJEU. As stated the opinion is not available in the English language, however it is possible to read it in a.o. Spanish, German, French or Italian.

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The opinion of the Advocate General in Case C-516/14 Barlis 06 – Investimentos Imobiliários e Turísticos has been published (VAT – Content of invoices)