In this article, the authors discuss the EU VAT law perspective on the right to deduct input VAT relating to taxed, exempt and/or non-taxable transactions. Their analysis starts from the hypothesis that, under EU VAT law, the right to deduct input VAT generally exists if taxable persons use goods and services for productive purposes. Several comments to the authors’ conference paper are contained in Peter Melz, "Activities outside the Scope of VAT and Exempt Activities" in International VAT Monitor 5 (2011).