Ask a tax advisor on the topic of Sales tax / Turnover tax

Photovoltaic system / Value Added Tax

February 25, 2010 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Dipl.BW/SB Ulrich Stiller

Good day,

In September 2008, we had a photovoltaic system installed on our detached family house.
On the invoice dated 26.09.2008, issued to Family My Name, the value added tax in the amount of €8,000 was also stated.
As a small business owner, we did not exempt ourselves from the value added tax, and the tax office refunded us the €8,000 after a few weeks.
In November 2009, the tax office conducted a special value added tax audit at our house.
On 20.11., we received the decision that the conduct of a unified and separate determination of income from business operations in 2008 from the operation of the PV system for the My Name & My Wife's Name GbR is rejected.

Reasoning:
According to the available documents, the PV system is not operated by the My Name & My Wife's Name GbR, but solely by me.

The mistake according to the tax office (verbal statement) was that I only specified myself as the operator of the system to the local electricity supplier on a registration form and not the GbR.

The tax office advised me (verbally) to retrospectively change the invoice from the system installer to My Name instead of Family My Name. I arranged this change and submitted the amended invoice to the tax office. After that, the tax office wanted to see the order confirmation.
I also had the order confirmation changed to My Name and submitted it to the tax office.
The original order confirmation was issued to Family My Name and was only signed by me (so only 1 signature).

In December 2009, the tax office demanded the entire value added tax of €8,000 back and refunded €4,000 of the value added tax on my part of the system within the GbR in the same month.

In January, the tax office conducted a tax audit at the system installer with the result that they cannot pay out the remaining €4,000 of value added tax to me, as the original order confirmation was issued to Family My Name and a subsequent change would mean a alteration of facts.

Note: I was the only one who negotiated with the system company and I was the only one who signed the first order confirmation, which was issued to Family My Name. Isn't that already sufficient to prove that I am the sole client?

What steps can I take now to claim the remaining €4,000 of value added tax?

Thank you for your advice.

Best regards,

M.H.

Dipl.BW/SB Ulrich Stiller

Dear inquirer,

Thank you for your inquiry, which I would like to answer based on your information and in the context of your case in a first consultation as follows:

According to § 14 para. 6 no. 5 UStG in connection with § 31 para. 5 UStDV, the invoice could be corrected in general. According to this provision, an invoice can be corrected if

a)
it does not contain all the information required by § 14 para. 4 or § 14a UStG, or

b)
the information in the invoice is incorrect.

In your case, according to point b, the information of the recipient of the service in the invoice is incorrect. You have already corrected this by changing the invoice.

I hope that you have timely filed an objection against the rejection notice. Additionally, you should check if the rejection notice is subject to review under § 164 para. 1 AO, then it could still be changed in your favor today, even without an objection.

Due to the complexity of the matter, it is essential to have access to the entire process. Therefore, you should definitely engage a tax advisor to review the situation. If you wish, you may contact me at my email address StillerStB@gmx.de.

First of all, I hope that I was able to assist you within the scope of your case.

Best regards,

Ulrich Stiller
Tax advisor