31Since, in that context, Royal Mail nevertheless failed to recover the amount of VAT from Zipvit, and in view of the fact that the tax and customs administration itself waived recovery of VAT from that supplier for considerations relating to, inter alia, the protection of legitimate expectations, it must be held that the price invoiced to Zipvit for the supply of postal services is a price exclusive of VAT. However, given that VAT is a tax which must be charged, at each stage, only on the added value and must ultimately be borne by the final consumer (see, to that effect, judgment of 7 August 2018, Viking Motors and Others, C‑475/17, EU:C:2018:636, paragraph 33), a taxable person such as Zipvit cannot claim to deduct an amount of VAT for which it has not been charged and which it has therefore not passed on to the final consumer.
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