26.5.2012

Official Journal of the European Union

C 151/24

(Case C-138/12)

2012/C 151/38

Language of the case: Bulgarian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Rusedespred OOD

Defendant: Direktor na Direktsia ‘Obzhalvane i upravlenie na izpalnenieto’ — gr. Varna pri Tsentralno Upravlenie na Natsionalnata Agentsia za Prihodite

Questions referred

1.Is a taxable person entitled, in accordance with the principle of neutrality, to claim a refund of incorrectly invoiced and undue VAT within the limitation period laid down where, under national law, the transaction in respect of which he has charged the tax is exempt from VAT, the risk of any loss of tax revenue has been eliminated and the provision of national law governing the correction of invoices is inapplicable?

2.Do the common system of value added tax and the principles of neutrality, effectiveness and equal treatment preclude the refusal by a revenue authority, on the basis of a national provision transposing Article 203 of Council Directive 2006/112 of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, to refund to a taxable person the VAT which that person has entered on an invoice where that tax is not owed, because the transaction in question is exempt from VAT, but was invoiced, charged and paid in error, in so far as the purchaser of the goods or recipient of the service has already been refused the right to deduct tax in respect of the same transaction by a final tax assessment notice on the ground that the supplier of goods or services charged the tax unlawfully?

3.Can a taxable person rely directly on the principles governing the common system of value added tax, in particular the principles of tax neutrality and effectiveness, in order to object to a national provision or its application by the tax authorities or the courts in breach of the aforementioned principles or to the failure by a national provision to observe those principles?

Language of the case: Bulgarian

* * *

(1) OJ 2006 L 347, p. 1.