CJUE: Dreptul de deducere a TVA nu poate fi amânat din motive pur formale
ECJ: The Right to Deduct VAT Cannot Be Postponed on Purely Formal Grounds

Summary/Abstract: On 11 February 2026, the General Court of the European Union delivered a landmark VAT judgment in Case T689/24 – I. S.A. vs. Dyrektor Krajowej Informacji Skarbowej. The decision clarifies a frequently disputed practical issue: the timing of the right to deduct VAT where the invoice is received after the tax period in which VAT became chargeable, but before the VAT return for that period is filed. The Court ruled that the right to deduct VAT arises at the moment when VAT becomes chargeable, not when the invoice is received. Possession of an invoice constitutes a formal condition for exercising that right, not for its existence. Consequently, where the invoice is received before the VAT return is filed, a Member State may not require the taxable person to defer the deduction to a later period. The judgment reconfirms the Court’s consistent case law on the primacy of economic substance over excessive formalism and is particularly relevant for Romania in the context of increasingly strict reporting obligations (e-Invoice, SAF-T, etc.). For taxpayers and tax advisors, this decision represents a powerful legal tool both for risk management and for defending VAT positions in disputes with tax authorities.

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