Changes in the Practice of Resolving Cases of Financial Compensation for Vat Refund Retained During Tax Audit in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

In the state in which the Slovak Republic functioned until 31 December 2016, there was no legal regulation of interest on VAT refund, which would allow the tax admini-strator to award taxpayers compensation for the retained VAT refund during tax audit. The institution of “compensation for VAT refund retained during tax audit“ (provision of Article 79a) was incorporated into the Act on VAT only with effect from 1 January 2017 under the influence of the decision-making activity of the Court of Justice of the European Union in this area. Based on the analysis of the examined issues in the current decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, the objective of this article is to propose solutions de lege ferenda for the system functioning in the Slovak Republic in connection with the problem of compensation for VAT refund retained during tax audit for the period up to 31 December 2016, as well as to point out other unresolved matters related to the amount of interest and the period for which interest on VAT refund in question is to be calculated in light of the current legislation of European Union in this area.