On 3 December 2025, the EU General Court ruled in MS Ključarovci (T-646/24) that a chain of four traders in three Member States can still qualify for the simplification for triangular transactions.
The case
A Slovenian company bought soya meal, rapeseed meal and rapeseed oil from German suppliers and resold the goods to three Danish companies. It organised and paid for the transport from Germany to Denmark. It applied the simplification, so that the Danish customers would account for the VAT and it would not need to identify itself for VAT in Denmark.
The goods did not stay with those customers. A fourth company, also VAT-identified in Denmark, had bought them and took them over at the end of the transport. No VAT on the acquisitions was paid in Denmark or in Slovenia. The Slovenian tax authority refused the simplification, arguing that one transport had carried more than two supplies.
The ruling
Article 141(c) of the VAT Directive does not require the goods to reach the person for whom the subsequent supply is carried out. A supply does not depend on physical possession, so the goods can travel in one transport to that person's customer. The condition is still met, as long as that customer is VAT-identified in the same Member State as the reseller. Whether the trader using the simplification knows about the resale has no bearing on that condition.
The limit is fraud. The authorities of the Member State that issued the VAT number used for the acquisition must refuse the simplification, and the reduction of the taxable amount under Article 41, if the trader knew or should have known that it was taking part in VAT fraud in the chain.
What to check
- A resale by your customer does not end the simplification on its own. Check that the final buyer is VAT-identified in the same Member State as your customer.
- The other conditions of Articles 42 and 141 still apply, including your own reporting of the transaction.
- Know who you are dealing with. Here, the Danish tax authority reported that the three customers had no warehouses or offices in Denmark.
mr. J. el Khalfioui LL.M.