Accession to the European Union EU VAT case law

6 cases of the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union on this point of VAT law, from 2010 to 2020.

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Provisions these cases interpret most

Article 168 of Directive 2006/112/EC Origin and scope of right of deduction · 5 of these cases
Article 176 of Directive 2006/112/EC Restrictions on the right of deduction · 4 of these cases
Article 17 of Sixth Directive 77/388/EEC Deductions · 2 of these cases
Article 38 of Directive 2006/112/EC Supplies of gas through a natural gas system, of electricity and of heat or cooling energy through heating and cooling networks · 1 of these cases
Article 171 of Directive 2006/112/EC Origin and scope of right of deduction · 1 of these cases
Article 195 of Directive 2006/112/EC Persons liable for payment of VAT to the tax authorities · 1 of these cases
Article 15 of Directive 2006/112/EC Supply of goods · 1 of these cases
Article 169 of Directive 2006/112/EC Origin and scope of right of deduction · 1 of these cases

The 6 cases, most recent first

Under each case, what the Court decided, from its summary. The summaries are AI-generated and are not official documents: open the case for the Court’s own text.

C-837/19 Super Bock Bebidas

Order · 17 September 2020 · Portugal

Standstill exclusions on accommodation, meals, cars and fuel from the date of accession

Ruling by reasoned order, the Court held that those provisions do not preclude such legislation. The standstill in Article 176 allows a Member State to retain the exclusions from the right of deduction that its law provided for at the date of its accession, and the reference point for a State that joined later is the date of accession rather than 1 January 1979. That the expenditure is shown to have been used for taxed transactions does not displace the standstill. Confirms for later accession States the reading already applied to the founding Member States, and explains why blocked input tax on hotels, meals, cars and fuel persists across the Union in patterns that look arbitrary.

C-630/19 PAGE International

Order · 26 February 2020 · Portugal

A partial deduction on food costs is compatible with the standstill clause

The Court holds that they do not preclude such legislation. The second paragraph of Article 176 permits a Member State to retain the exclusions in force at the date of its accession, and a measure that narrows an existing exclusion by allowing a partial deduction moves in the direction the directive intends. It therefore falls within the standstill clause rather than outside it. The order confirms the ratchet built into Article 176.

C-225/18 Grupa Lotos

Judgment · 2 May 2019 · Poland

Standstill clause and the block on deducting VAT on accommodation and catering

Article 168(a) precludes the exclusion in so far as its scope was extended after accession, so a taxable person supplying tourism services cannot be denied deduction on accommodation and catering re-invoiced to other taxable persons. It does not preclude the exclusion, as it stood before accession and was maintained, for a taxable person not supplying tourism services who re-invoices such services. The standstill clause covers adequately defined categories, including strictly business expenditure. Confirms that pre-accession blocks on deduction survive even where the expenditure is wholly business related and is on-charged, provided the category is defined by reference to the nature of the services. Relevant to advisers in Poland and other later acceding States with sectoral deduction blocks, and to groups that recharge hotel and catering costs internally.

C-552/16 Wind Inovation 1

Judgment · 9 November 2017 · Bulgaria

Deemed supply on deregistration of a company in liquidation

Article 176 was not engaged, as no exclusion from deduction was at issue. The Court drew the line by reference to Article 18(c). A Member State may require VAT on available assets to be calculated and paid on court-ordered dissolution only where the company no longer carries out economic transactions. Where it continues to carry out economic transactions while in liquidation it retains taxable person status, and conditioning deduction on actual payment of that tax restricts the right to deduct contrary to Article 168. Relevant to insolvency practitioners, liquidators and advisers dealing with companies wound up or dissolved while still trading, particularly in Member States that treat dissolution as an automatic ground for deregistration.

C-323/12 E.ON Global Commodities

Judgment · 6 February 2014 · Romania

Effect of a retained tax representative on Eighth Directive refunds

A supplier of electricity to taxable dealers in another Member State may rely on the Eighth Directive there for a refund of input VAT, and that right is not excluded merely by having designated a tax representative identified for VAT purposes in that State. A representative is not an establishment, and identification alone does not show that taxable supplies were actually made there. The national court must still verify that no supplies with a place of supply in Romania were in fact made. The provisions have direct effect. Relevant to energy traders and any business that retained a legacy tax representative or a VAT number in a Member State after reverse charge rules removed the need for one.

C-248/09 Pakora Pluss

Judgment · 29 July 2010 · Latvia

Import VAT and the accession transitional regime for goods in transport

The accession regime is exhaustive for goods in transport on 01-05-2004 and requires three cumulative conditions: export procedure completed, release for free circulation, and proof of preferential origin or Community status. Article 448 steps cannot substitute for the export formalities. The Customs Code applied in the new Member States from 01-05-2004, but the duty-free accession regime cannot be invoked where those formalities were not completed. Import duties under Article 4(10) do not include import VAT. Import VAT is payable by the person designated or accepted as liable by the Member State of importation. Confirms that import VAT sits outside the customs concept of import duties even though duties enter the import VAT taxable amount, and that liability for import VAT is a matter of national designation rather than automatically attaching to the transit principal under customs rules.