The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on 17 October 2018 (C-249/17) that a taxable person may in certain circumstances be entitled to deduct VAT relating to expenditures he incurred on professional services in relation to share acquisition. The entitlement holds good even if the investment could not ultimately be completed in whole to purchase all the shares. The case involved Ryanair the air carrier, which incurred substantial expenditure on professional services in connection with its intention to acquire another company. Ultimately, the acquisition could not go through for reasons relating to compliance with competition law. Yet Ryanair claimed the deduction of VAT paid on its professional service expenditures, arguing that its intention behind the acquisition was to provide taxable management services to the target company. According to Ryanair, that gave it the right to deduct the tax on supplies of professional services to it.
For the full text of the article by tax consultant Michał Kordiak , see Rzeczpospolita on-line, Dobra Firma weekly, and here.