Tax exemption for intra-Community supplies voided by concerted concealment of recipient identity

The Federal Court of Justice (1st Criminal Senate) dismissed the defendant's revision as unfounded, thereby upholding the Landgericht Magdeburg's judgment and ordering the defendant to bear the costs of the appellate proceedings. The dispute centered on value-added tax evasion committed in collusion, specifically concerning whether the tax-exempt status of intra-Community deliveries was voided by the defendant's collaboration with co-perpetrators who acted dishonestly in the destination state. The decisive legal basis established that the exemption from value-added tax on intra-Community supplies ceases to apply not only due to the recipients' tax dishonesty, but also because the defendant and the separately prosecuted co-perpetrators acted in concert to conceal the identity of these recipients, thereby fulfilling the requirements for criminal liability under tax evasion statutes.