Judgment_paragraph 47 · Volkswagen AG v Finančné riaditeľstvo Slovenskej republiky (C-533/16)

47The Court has thus already held that a limitation period the expiry of which has the effect of penalising a taxable person who has not been sufficiently diligent and has failed to claim deduction of the input VAT, by making him forfeit his right to deduct, cannot be regarded as incompatible with the regime established by Directive 2006/112, in so far as, first, that limitation period applies in the same way to analogous rights in tax matters founded on domestic law and to those founded on EU law (principle of equivalence) and, second, that it does not render in practice impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of the right to deduct VAT (principle of effectiveness) (judgment of 28 July 2016, Astone, C‑332/15, EU:C:2016:614, paragraphs 34 and 35 and the case-law cited).