Judgment_paragraph 36 · „ALTI“ OOD v Direktor na Direktsia „Obzhalvane i danachno-osiguritelna praktika“ Plovdiv pri Tsentralno upravlenie na Natsionalnata agentsia za prihodite (C-4/20)

36The Court has thus ruled that Article 205 of Directive 2006/112 allows a Member State to hold a person jointly and severally liable for payment of VAT where, at the time of the supply to it, that person knew or ought to have known that the tax payable in respect of that supply, or of any previous or subsequent supply, would go unpaid, and to rely on presumptions in that regard, provided that such presumptions are not formulated in such a way as to make it practically impossible or excessively difficult for the taxable person to rebut them with evidence to the contrary, thereby creating a system of strict liability going beyond what is necessary to preserve the public exchequer’s rights. Traders who take every precaution which could reasonably be required of them to ensure that their transactions do not form part of a chain that is fraudulent or amounts to an abuse must be able to rely on the legality of those transactions without the risk of being made jointly and severally liable to pay the VAT due from another taxable person (see, to that effect, judgment of 11 May 2006, Federation of Technological Industries and Others, C‑384/04, EU:C:2006:309, paragraphs 32 and 33 and the case-law cited).