From paper to pixels: navigating the entangled net of VAT deductions

Our study focuses on the jurisprudential accents regarding formal requisites of the right to deduct in the European framework. All consequences, in both economic and legal dimension regarding VAT, are embedded in the threads that form it: VAT is an indirect, general, consumption tax, of European origin, with fragmented payment and neutral effect on the economic agent. For this tool to trawl throughout the European economy, the tension from different national regulations is dispersed through considerable harmonisation both normative and jurisprudential. We propose an empirical analysis of the right to deduct in the contemporary context; we start from the current ECJ case-law regarding the existence and content of traditional, paper invoice and we generate an inventory of conditionalities. This systematised spectrum of requisites will be further used to read the normative content regarding VAT in the digital age and draw a prognostication for future case-law. Our working hypothesis is that formal conditionality regarding invoice will plummet into oblivion; the e-invoice will tackle old habits.