On 12 March 2026, the Court of Justice ruled in Harry et Associés (C-527/24) that a VAT refund application cannot be treated as if it never existed because of a technical fault in its transmission.
The case
On 26 September 2016, a French company applied through the French tax authorities for a refund of EUR 98,740.93 in VAT on transactions carried out in Italy in 2015. The French authorities forwarded the application electronically. The file reached the Italian tax office, but technical errors made it unreadable, so the application was never examined.
The office did not respond, and the company went to court. It won at first instance and received the refund. On appeal, the application was held to be non-existent, so the silence could not count as an implied rejection. The Italian tax office then moved to recover the money, with interest and costs.
The ruling
The VAT Directive, read with the refund Directive 2008/9 and the principles of neutrality, proportionality and good administration, precludes this outcome. A business established in another Member State cannot lose both its right to a refund and its access to the courts because of a technical fault in the electronic transmission.
National rules on final judgments do not change this where they would perpetuate an incorrect reading of EU law in a dispute with a different subject matter. The Italian court must verify whether that is the case here.
What to check
- Keep proof of every refund application and of its transmission.
- Do not wait in silence. A failure to decide on a refund application must be open to challenge, so use the appeal route of the Member State of refund and watch its time limits.
- If a refund was refused because an application was treated as not submitted, review the case in light of this ruling.
mr. J. el Khalfioui LL.M.