On 8 July 2026, the EU General Court set out in Case T-356/25 how far a tax representative answers for a client's VAT. This matters to every business that uses a representative in another Member State, and to the representatives themselves.
The case
A Greek customs agent acted as tax representative of an Italian company that traded cellulose and stored goods in Greece. Under a power of attorney, she filed VAT returns and handled payments and customs formalities. After an inspection of the years 2020 to 2022, the Greek authority found unpaid VAT of EUR 3,344,061.47 and froze part of the bank deposits of both the company and the representative. She said that she had only filed returns and paid the tax due on them.
The ruling
The General Court drew a clear line between two articles of the VAT Directive.
- Article 204: appointed as the person liable. A representative can be liable for the VAT even if not involved in the transactions, provided the taxable person has appointed the representative as such.
- Article 205: joint and several liability. A representative who is not appointed as the person liable, and only carries out VAT filing obligations without keeping accounts or issuing accounting documents, cannot simply be held liable. It must be possible to assess whether the representative was involved in the business, knew or ought to have known that the tax would go unpaid, acted in good faith and took all reasonable measures.
Two further points follow. The same person cannot be liable under both articles. And it makes no difference whether the transaction ran under the client's home VAT number or under its number in the Member State where the VAT is due.
What to check
- Representatives: read the mandate. Does it appoint you as the person liable, or only to file?
- Businesses: check what your appointment says, and whether it matches what your representative actually does.
- Keep a record of the checks you made and the steps you took. Good faith and reasonable measures are part of the test.
- The Greek court still has to apply this to the case.
mr. J. el Khalfioui LL.M.