Glencore Agriculture Hungary Kft v Nemzeti Adó-és Vámhivatal Fellebbviteli Igazgatóság

In Glencore Agriculture Hungary Kft v Nemzeti Adó-és Vámhivatal Fellebbviteli Igazgatóság (Case C-254/16) (6 July 2017) the CJEU found that a taxpayer who had been late in providing information required by the authorities was entitled to default interest.

Glencore traded in grains and had submitted a claim for overpayment of VAT. The Hungarian tax authorities had repaid part of the capital amount but had refused to pay default interest on the ground that Glencore had been late in providing information required by the authorities to assess the claim (and imposed a penalty for the delay) so that any default interest was only due from the date of production of the investigation report. Glencore contended that the investigation procedure had taken more than two years for reasons which were not connected with the late disclosure of the documents requested.

The...