Judgment_paragraph 56 · Ferimet SL v Administración General del Estado (C-281/20)

56In the third place, as regards the question whether a taxable person acting in bad faith can be refused the right of deduction only where there is a risk of loss of tax revenue for the Member State and a tax advantage for the taxable person or other parties involved in the transaction concerned, it must be observed that, under the reverse charge procedure, no payment is due, in principle, to the Treasury (see, in particular, judgments of 6 February 2014, Fatorie, C‑424/12, EU:C:2014:50, paragraph 29, and of 26 April 2017, Farkas, C‑564/15, EU:C:2017:302, paragraph 41). Moreover, the question whether the VAT payable on the prior or subsequent sales of the goods concerned has or has not been paid to the Treasury is irrelevant to the right of the taxable person to deduct VAT (see, to that effect, order of 3 September 2020, Vikingo Fővállalkozó, C‑610/19, EU:C:2020:673, paragraph 42 and the case-law cited). However, as is apparent from paragraphs 44 and 46 to 52 of the present judgment, the taxable person must be refused the right of deduction where the information necessary to verify that the supplier of the goods or services concerned had the status of taxable person is lacking or it is established to the requisite legal standard that that taxable person has committed VAT fraud or knew or ought to have known that the transaction relied on as a basis for that right was connected with such a fraud. A finding of a risk of loss of tax revenue is not, therefore, necessary in order to justify such a refusal.