Tribunal lets contractor reverse VAT on disputed 2022 invoices

In a unanimous decision of 28 August 2026 (SKNA2 51/2026), Skatteklagenemnda's General Department 02 allowed a bankrupt contractor's appealSkatteetaten and reversed a tax-office assessment of kr 379,173 in additional output VATSkatteetaten. The case settles, for now, how the transitional rule for the deferred-timing regime for disputed manufacturing-contract claims applies to invoices issued in the November–December 2022 period but reported after the regime took effect.

The regime itself is mva-forskriften § 15-9-3Skatteetaten, added by amending regulation 22 December 2022 nr. 2472Lovdata: disputed amounts arising under manufacturing contracts (tilvirkningskontrakter), where there is objectively reasonable doubt whether the creditor is entitled to the consideration, are reported in the return for the period in which the claim is clarified or paidLovdata — except between related parties under skatteforvaltningsloven § 8-11 fourth paragraph. The amending regulation took effect on 1 January 2023Skatteetaten but does not apply to VAT on disputed claims which under mva-loven § 15-9 first paragraph were or should have been reported in a return before 1 January 2023Skatteetaten.

The taxpayer, a housing-construction company later bankrupt, had invoiced customers on 22 November and 7 December 2022 with output VATSkatteetaten, reported the November–December 2022 period on 9 February 2023Skatteetaten, saw the invoices disputed by the recipients during January–February 2023Skatteetaten, and reversed the output VAT in the January–February 2023 return filed on 25 May 2023Skatteetaten. The tax office warned of and then, on 3 May 2024, set an assessment increasing output VAT by kr 379,173Skatteetaten: in its view the wording on claims reported before 1 January 2023 refers to the period the VAT belongs to, so invoices correctly issued in the 2022 period fall outside the new rule regardless of when the return was filed. The company appealed on 6 May 2024Skatteetaten, within the six-week deadline, and the secretariat's draft recommendation of 6 August 2026 — to which the company had no remarks — proposed allowing the appeal.

The secretariat, admittedly with some doubt, sided with the company: while the reference to mva-loven § 15-9 first paragraph points to allocation of the amount, the phrase reported in a return before 1 January 2023 most naturally means filed or due before that dateSkatteetaten — reporting happens on filing, and hardly anyone can close and file the November–December 2022 period before 1 January 2023. Had the return actually been filed before that date, the correction would have been barred. Members Angermo, Johnsen and Nyhus joined without dissent.

Decisive was an email from the Finance Ministry drafter, also published in Sticos: the provision was not meant to cut off claims that had not been reported in a return before the effective dateSkatteetaten, expressly including claims for the 6th period of 2022 first reported after 1 January 2023. Such an internal exchange ordinarily carries low weight, the secretariat agreed, but with almost no other sources for either reading it gave the drafter's confirmation weight here. The tax office had never asked the Directorate or the Ministry itself, and its EY commentary illustrated only an ordinary reading.

Whether the claims were truly disputed was outside the case. The holding is narrow: VAT invoiced in November–December 2022 but first reported after 1 January 2023 could be reversed when the dispute became clearSkatteetaten, here January–February 2023; amounts already filed before the turn of the year stay outside the ruleSkatteetaten.

Legal basis: mva-forskriften § 15-9-3 (FOR 2022-12-22-2472, in force 1 January 2023 with transitional rule)Lovdata; mva-loven § 15-9 first paragraph; Skatteklagenemnda vedtak SKNA2 51/2026 of 28 August 2026 (klagen tas til følge)Skatteetaten.