Direct effect EU VAT case law

T-413/25 Peckeger

Judgment · 2 September 2026 · Austria

Contributing property for no shares, and the limits a Member State may place on Article 19

The General Court held that the contribution is not a supply of goods for consideration, since the transferor obtains no actual consideration for the properties. It is, however, an application of goods forming part of the business assets, transferred free of charge or applied for purposes other than those of the business within the first paragraph of Article 16, and is therefore treated as a supply for consideration. The Court further held that Article 19 precludes national legislation restricting the regime to certain categories of activity or income, including where the legislature opted for the rule before accession but confined it to specific cases not covered by the second paragraph of Article 19. Finally, the first paragraph of Article 19 has direct effect and may be relied on before the national courts. The transfer of a totality of assets is an autonomous concept of EU law, and the second paragraph of Article 19 sets out the only grounds on which a Member State may restrict it.

T-268/25 Sampension Livsforsikring

Judgment · 15 July 2026

100% ownership condition for VAT groups including exempt or non-taxable members

Article 11 precludes such a 100% ownership condition, unless it is a necessary and proportionate measure to combat tax evasion or avoidance under the second paragraph, a matter for the national court, bearing in mind that reduced receipts or a merely theoretical risk do not amount to evasion, and that the advantage is identical below 100%. Article 11 has no direct effect, so it cannot be relied on against a Member State where national law is incompatible and cannot be interpreted consistently. Relevant to financial services, insurance and pension groups, and to any partly exempt structure using shared service or administration companies where minority external shareholdings break wholly owned chains.

C-232/24 Kosmiro

Judgment · 23 October 2025 · Finland

VAT treatment of factoring fees and commissions

Both products are supplies of services for consideration and both fall within "debt collection" in Article 135(1)(d). The commission and arrangement fees are consideration for a single, indivisible taxable debt collection service. There is no separate exempt credit supply, since in trade factoring the funds are the price of the debts and in invoice factoring the financing is merely the corollary of collection. Article 135(1)(d)'s debt collection exception is unconditional and precise, so it has direct effect against the State. Factors and their advisers can no longer split factoring fees between taxable collection and exempt financing where the factor also runs the recovery.

C-605/23 Ati-19

Judgment · 3 July 2025 · Bulgaria

Judicial review of provisional sealing of business premises

Article 47 precludes such rules. Interim judicial protection is not effective if the court cannot also examine, in fact and in law, whether the application is supported by arguments disclosing prima facie unlawfulness of the measure. Otherwise suspension could be refused even against a manifestly unlawful sealing. The national court must interpret domestic procedural law accordingly and, if that is impossible, disapply the provisions preventing such an assessment, Article 47 having direct effect. Confirms that sealing of premises for till receipt failures is an implementation of Articles 2 and 273 of the VAT Directive, so Charter guarantees apply to both imposition and immediate enforcement. Relevant to advisers in any Member State whose interim relief rules exclude a summary legality check for coercive VAT enforcement measures of a criminal nature.

C-501/24 Klinka-Geo Trans

Order · 2 May 2025 · Hungary

Refusing deduction where the transaction never took place, without testing knowledge of fraud

Ruling by order, the Court held that the Directive does not preclude a refusal made without any examination of the recipient's knowledge where the authority establishes that the transaction did not take place. The knowledge test belongs to cases where a real transaction is tainted by fraud elsewhere in the chain, not to cases where there was no supply at all. The Court declared itself manifestly without jurisdiction on the second question and the fourth and sixth questions manifestly inadmissible, and confirmed that the national court must disapply directions it considers contrary to clear case law without needing to make a prior reference. The distinction it draws is the one that decides many Hungarian and Romanian disputes.

C-262/24 Pegazus Busz

Order · 12 February 2025 · Hungary

Evidence of fraud must be put to the taxable person, and a lower court may depart from binding directions

Ruling by order, the Court declared several of the questions manifestly inadmissible or answerable from existing case law. On the merits it held that Article 47 of the Charter requires the taxable person to have knowledge of, and to be able to debate on an adversarial basis before the national court, the evidence on which the administration relies to find participation in evasion. It further held that the primacy of EU law and Article 267 TFEU oblige the national court to set aside directions it considers contrary to EU law, without being required to make a preliminary reference first. Two points of real practical weight in fraud cases.

C-741/22 Casino de Spa and Others

Judgment · 12 September 2024 · Belgium

VAT exemption for online lotteries but not other online gambling

Differentiated treatment is permissible provided objective differences (chance alone determining winners, the waiting period, stakes and odds, cultural factors) considerably influence the average consumer's choice. The identity, legal form, licence category, regulatory regime and legislative objectives of providers are irrelevant. National courts must disapply provisions incompatible with Article 135(1)(i), a constitutional court's maintenance of effects being irrelevant. Tax wrongly levied is refundable unless refund unjustly enriches the taxable person. No damages equivalent to the VAT paid on unlawful State aid grounds. Relevant to gambling operators in Member States that split the exemption by game type.

C-73/23 Chaudfontaine Loisirs

Judgment · 12 September 2024 · Belgium

VAT exemption for online gambling and the limits of national discretion

Differentiating between online non-lottery gambling and lotteries or offline gambling is compatible with Article 135(1)(i) and neutrality, provided the objective differences are liable to have a considerable influence on the average consumer's choice. That is for the national court to verify. Article 135(1)(i) has direct effect, so a constitutional court's decision to maintain the effects of annulled provisions is irrelevant and they must be disapplied. Refund of VAT levied in breach is due, unless it would unjustly enrich the taxable person. Operators of online casino and betting products in Member States that tax electronic gambling while exempting lotteries and land based play now have a harder neutrality argument. Relevant to gambling advisers and to anyone litigating retrospective effects of annulled tax legislation.

C-243/23 Drebers

Judgment · 12 September 2024 · Belgium

Adjustment period for major renovation and extension works

Works taxed as services are not themselves immovable property acquired as capital goods, but where a Member State has used the Article 190 option it must respect fiscal neutrality and the economic life of the effects of the services. Excluding significant extension or substantial renovation works whose effects last as long as a new building from the extended period is precluded. Whether Article 12(2) conversion occurred is irrelevant. Article 190, read with Article 187, has direct effect and can be invoked against the authorities.

C-537/22 Global Ink Trade

Judgment · 11 January 2024 · Hungary

Due diligence and the burden of proof in denying deduction

A lower court must disregard higher court rulings inconsistent with the Court's interpretation, whether given by judgment or reasoned order. An obligation merely to give reasons for departing is permissible. Refusal for lack of diligence assessed by circular is allowed only if the authority still proves, by objective evidence, fraud and the taxable person's knowledge. No complex, far-reaching checks on counterparties may be required. The authority must follow its own circular, which must be unequivocal and foreseeable. Establishing a circular invoicing chain alone is insufficient. Fraud must be accurately described, though not every operator identified. Relevant to traders facing Hungarian (and comparable) deduction denials based on supplier unreliability or "passive fraud".

C-107/23 PPU Lin

Judgment · 24 July 2023

Limitation periods for VAT fraud, and the limits of a national standard of protection

The Court held that those provisions do not require the national courts to disapply case law of that kind where it flows from the principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law, as protected under national law in its requirements of foreseeability and precision, even though a considerable number of cases of serious fraud affecting the Union's financial interests will be discontinued as time-barred. Those provisions do, however, require the courts to disapply a national standard of protection relating to the retroactive application of the more lenient criminal law which permits the interruption of limitation to be called into question in such cases, including on appeals against final judgments. The principle of primacy precludes national legislation or practice binding ordinary courts to the decisions of the constitutional and supreme courts, at the risk of disciplinary liability, where they consider that case law contrary to directly effective EU law. The case sits at the junction between the duty to counter fraud affecting VAT-based own resources and the national constitutional guarantees surrounding criminal liability.

C-844/19 technoRent International and Others

Judgment · 12 May 2021 · Austria

Default interest on late VAT refunds where national law is silent

Articles 90(1) and 183, read with fiscal neutrality, require interest where either type of refund is not made within a reasonable period. A refund following a reduction of the taxable amount is treated exactly like excess input VAT. Article 27(2) of Directive 2008/9 is a catch-all for non-established claimants and cannot be applied by analogy outside its scope. The conditions (rate, starting point) remain for national law, and the referring court must interpret domestic law in conformity, short of contra legem. Silence in national law is no answer to an interest claim.

C-868/19 Finanzamt für Körperschaften Berlin

Judgment · 15 April 2021 · Germany

Germany could not require every partner in a partnership to be financially integrated

The Court holds that Article 11 precludes such a condition. The anti avoidance power in the second paragraph of that article allows measures needed to prevent evasion or avoidance, but a blanket requirement of this kind applies irrespective of any risk of abuse and goes beyond what is necessary. It also treats partnerships less favourably than companies without objective justification. One of the series of German grouping cases that also produced Norddeutsche Gesellschaft fur Diakonie and Finanzamt T.

C-488/18 Golfclub Schloss Igling

Judgment · 10 December 2020 · Germany

Sports exemption, direct effect and the meaning of non-profit-making organisation

Article 132(1)(m) has no direct effect. The words "certain services" leave Member States a discretion as to which sport-related services to exempt, so an organisation cannot invoke the provision to exempt services which national law does not cover. Article 134(a) limits but does not remove that discretion. "Non-profit-making organisation" is nonetheless an autonomous EU concept. Assets must be permanently dedicated to the body's objects, and on dissolution surpluses exceeding members' paid-up capital shares and the market value of contributions in kind cannot be distributed to members. Sports clubs, gyms and associations cannot bypass a narrow national exemption list by relying on the Directive.

C-424/19 UR (Liability of lawyers to VAT)

Judgment · 16 July 2020 · Romania

Lawyers as taxable persons and the limits of res judicata

A person practising the profession of lawyer carries on an economic activity as a liberal profession and is a taxable person under Article 9(1). EU law precludes applying res judicata where the later dispute concerns a different tax period and a different subject matter and where applying the principle would stop the national court giving effect to the EU VAT rules. Finality is otherwise respected because EU law does not generally require a court to reopen definitive judgments. Confirms that lawyers and other liberal professions are within the VAT net.

C-146/19 SCT

Judgment · 11 June 2020 · Slovenia

Bad debt relief where the claim was not lodged in the debtor's insolvency

Extinction of the claim through failure to lodge it produces a definitive reduction of the debtor's obligations, so this is not "non-payment" under Article 90(2) but falls under Article 90(1). Requiring lodgement is in principle a legitimate formality under Articles 90(1) and 273, but refusal is precluded where the taxable person shows the claim would not have been recovered even if lodged. Article 90(1) has direct effect. National courts must interpret national law consistently or disapply it. Creditors in Member States that condition bad debt relief on procedural steps in the debtor's insolvency now have an escape route. Relevant to insolvency practitioners, credit control and finance teams, and advisers handling write-offs.

C-404/16 Lombard Ingatlan Lízing

Judgment · 12 October 2017 · Hungary

Reduction of the taxable amount on termination of a finance lease

The Court held that definitive termination of such a lease, where the lessor recovers the asset and can no longer claim the instalments, is a cancellation or refusal under Article 90(1), not non-payment. The distinction is definitiveness because non-payment leaves the debt in principle still owed and possibly only temporarily unpaid. Article 90(1) has direct effect and can be invoked despite the national derogation. Member States may still impose formalities proving the consideration will definitely not be received. Lessors and asset finance providers who accounted for VAT on the full amount at the outset can claim a reduction when an agreement is definitively terminated for default, including in Member States which have excluded reduction for bad debts.

C-592/15 British Film Institute

Judgment · 15 February 2017 · United Kingdom

No direct effect for the cultural services exemption

The provision does not have direct effect. The word "certain" means Member States are not obliged to exempt all cultural services. They decide which to exempt and may tax the rest. That discretion goes to the scope of the exemption, not merely to conditions of application, which distinguishes the case from Linneweber and JP Morgan Fleming Claverhouse. An untransposed provision of that kind cannot be invoked before national courts. The remaining questions were not answered. Museums, cinemas, theatres, galleries and other recognised cultural bodies cannot bypass national lists of exempt cultural services by invoking the Directive, whether to reclaim historic VAT for pre-transposition periods or to challenge a narrow domestic exemption.

C-108/14 Larentia + Minerva and Marenave Schiffahrt

Judgment · 16 July 2015 · Germany

Holding company input tax and the scope of VAT grouping

Where the holding company involves itself in the management of the subsidiaries, the acquisition costs are general overheads and VAT is in principle fully deductible, subject to Article 17(5) if there are exempt outputs. Where it manages only some subsidiaries, deduction is proportionate, on apportionment criteria set by Member States. Restricting grouping to subordinated legal persons is precluded unless necessary and appropriate to counter abuse or evasion, a matter for the national court. Article 4(4) has no direct effect. Confirms full deduction for genuine management holding companies, including on share issue and financing costs, and confines partial restriction to cases where some shareholdings are purely passive. Relevant to shipping, private equity and group holding structures.

C-492/13 Traum

Judgment · 9 October 2014 · Bulgaria

Evidence required for intra-Community supply exemption

Refusal is precluded where the evidence supplied matches the list of documents prescribed by national law and was initially accepted by the authorities as establishing entitlement. Retroactive removal of the purchaser's VAT number cannot in itself defeat exemption. The national court must verify this, and exemption is lost if objective evidence shows the supplier knew or should have known of fraud by the purchaser and failed to take reasonable steps. Article 138(1) has direct effect. Confirms that suppliers relying on the national list of proofs, and on VIES data checked and accepted by the tax authority, cannot later be taxed because that authority invents additional requirements such as signature authentication or proof of the signatory's mandate.

C-589/12 GMAC UK

Judgment · 3 September 2014 · United Kingdom

Direct effect of bad debt relief where national law exempts the resale

Article 11C(1), first subparagraph, is sufficiently precise and unconditional to have direct effect, despite the discretion left to Member States over conditions. A Member State cannot refuse it on the ground that the combined result with national law is one neither system intended. The shortfall stems solely from the national exemption of the auction sale, and a State may not plead its own defective implementation. Whether that national treatment conforms is irrelevant. Abuse remains for the national court, but structuring to limit tax liability is legitimate. Confirms that taxable persons may rely on directly effective Directive provisions transaction by transaction, without the tax authority netting off advantages arising from national rules applied to a linked transaction.

C-337/13 Almos Agrárkülkereskedelmi

Judgment · 15 May 2014 · Hungary

Reduction of the taxable amount where the price is not paid

Article 90 does not preclude national law that omits non-payment of the price, that omission being treated as use of the Article 90(2) derogation, but the legislation must then cover all the other Article 90(1) situations where consideration is not received, which the national court must verify. Article 90(1) is sufficiently precise and unconditional to be relied on directly. Formalities may be imposed to prove that the consideration definitively will not be received, but no more than necessary. Confirms that a Member State may silently derogate for bad debts.

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-142/12 Marinov

Judgment · 8 May 2013 · Bulgaria

Taxable amount on retention of goods after deregistration

Article 18(c) covers cessation whatever its cause, including removal from the register by the authorities, subject only to the Article 19 cases. The taxable amount is governed by Article 74, not Article 80 (whose conditions are exhaustive and not met here). It is the residual value of the goods at cessation. An open market value rule is precluded unless in practice it produces that residual value, reflecting the change in value since acquisition. Article 74 has direct effect. Relevant wherever a business is struck off the VAT register while holding assets on which input tax was recovered, in particular vehicle fleets and other depreciating equipment.

C-19/12 Efir

Judgment · 7 March 2013 · Bulgaria

Value added tax · Directive 2006/112/EC · Articles 62, 63, 65, 73 and 80 · Establishment by natural persons of a building right in favour of a company in exchange for construction services by that company for those persons · Barter contract · VAT on construction services · Chargeable event · When chargeable · Whether…

C-617/10 Åkerberg Fransson

Judgment · 26 February 2013

When enforcing VAT brings a national penalty regime within the Charter

The Court held that the Charter applies. Tax penalties and criminal proceedings for false VAT declarations are an implementation of EU law, because Articles 2, 250(1) and 273 of the VAT Directive and Article 325 TFEU oblige Member States to take all measures to ensure collection of VAT in full and to counter fraud, and VAT revenue forms part of the Union's own resources. It is irrelevant that the national rules were not adopted to transpose the directive. On the merits, Article 50 does not preclude successive tax and criminal penalties for the same acts provided the first penalty is not criminal in nature, which is for the national court to determine. EU law does not govern the relations between the Convention and national legal systems. EU law precludes a judicial practice conditioning the duty to disapply a provision contrary to the Charter on the infringement being clear from the Charter's text or case law. The judgment fixes the point at which a national penalty regime enters the field of application of the Charter in tax matters.

C-310/11 Grattan

Judgment · 19 December 2012 · United Kingdom

No retrospective reduction of the taxable amount under the Second Directive

Article 8(a) confers no such right. Under Article 5(5) the chargeable event occurred on delivery and the tax debt arose on the basis of assessment fixed at that moment. The Second Directive contained nothing allowing regularisation afterwards. Fiscal neutrality cannot supply what Article 11C(1) of the Sixth Directive later added. Since the sub-customers, as final consumers, paid the unreduced catalogue price and the commission went to the agents, the taxable amount was that full price. Closes off pre-1978 repayment claims resting on post-supply rebates, credits or agents' commission, a Fleming-style claim pattern familiar to UK retailers and their advisers.

C-549/11 Orfey

Judgment · 19 December 2012 · Bulgaria

Payments on account in kind and the taxable amount in barter construction deals

Article 65 covers payments on account in kind, including where they represent the entire consideration, so VAT on the construction services became chargeable when the building right was granted, provided all relevant information about the future supply was already known, the services were precisely identified, and the right's value could be expressed in money. A possible future extinction of the right is only a cancellation condition. Absent Article 80 ties between the parties, open market value cannot replace the subjective consideration. Articles 63, 65 and 73 have direct effect. Relevant to property developers and their advisers using land-for-build or building-right barter structures.

C-621/10 Balkan and Sea Properties and Provadinvest

Judgment · 26 April 2012 · Bulgaria

Open market value as the taxable amount for supplies between connected persons

The conditions in Article 80(1) are exhaustive. National legislation may not rely on that provision to make open market value the taxable amount outside the listed cases, in particular where the taxable person has a full right of deduction, since no evasion or avoidance risk arises there. Member States remain free to impose other anti-evasion obligations under Article 273. Article 80(1) may be relied on directly, and incompatible national provisions must be disapplied, leaving Article 73 to apply. Member States operating blanket connected-party valuation rules cannot apply them where both parties have full deduction rights.

C-203/10 Auto Nikolovi

Judgment · 3 March 2011 · Bulgaria

Margin scheme and goods imported by the dealer himself

The margin scheme does not apply to supplies of goods such as second-hand vehicle parts which the dealer himself imported into the EU under the normal scheme. Supply and importation are distinct, and the right to deduct import VAT removes any double taxation. Deferral of deduction under Article 320 is confined to imported works of art, collectors' items and antiques, where the dealer has a genuine option. Absent that option, no fraud risk justifies departing from immediate deduction. All three provisions have direct effect. A trader in second-hand goods importing from outside the EU applies the normal scheme to those goods and deducts the import VAT immediately under Articles 167 and 168, whether or not the goods qualify as second-hand.

C-363/05 JP Morgan Fleming Claverhouse Investment Trust and The Association of Investment Trust Companies

Judgment · 28 June 2007 · United Kingdom

Management of closed-ended investment funds as special investment funds

Closed-ended funds are capable of being special investment funds. Legal form and mode of operation are irrelevant, and a fund choosing external management is objectively comparable to one obliged to use it. Member States may define which funds qualify, but not select some for exemption and exclude others in competition with them, notably UCITS funds. Any distortion suffices. It need not be substantial. The provision has direct effect and can be invoked against incompatible national law. Fund managers and closed-ended vehicles, including listed investment companies and comparable non-UCITS structures, can challenge national exemption rules drawn purely by reference to UCITS-type wrappers, and can rely on the exemption directly before national courts.

C-453/02 Linneweber and Akritidis

Judgment · 17 February 2005 · Germany

Gambling exemption and the identity of the operator

Article 13B(f) precludes national legislation exempting all games of chance and gaming machines operated in licensed public casinos while denying the exemption to the same activity carried on by other traders. Fiscal neutrality means the identity of the operator cannot condition the exemption, so no comparison of stakes or rules was needed. The provision has direct effect where a Member State has not exercised, or has wrongly exercised, its power to set conditions and limitations. No temporal limitation of the judgment. Confirms that Member States' discretion over gambling exemption conditions is bounded by fiscal neutrality and cannot be exercised by reference to the status of the operator. Relevant to advisers to gaming and amusement machine businesses assessing national exemptions that distinguish between venue types or licence categories.

C-45/01 Dornier

Judgment · 6 November 2003 · Germany

Exemption for psychotherapeutic treatment given by non-doctors in a private foundation's out-patient facility

Such treatment is closely related to hospital or medical care only where it is genuinely ancillary to principal hospital or medical care. However, medical care in point (b) covers all care within point (c), including paramedical services by non-doctors. Recognition needs no formal procedure and need not derive from tax law. A medical supervision condition exceeds Member States' discretion. Exemption under point (c) is independent of legal form. Both provisions may be relied on directly. Relevant to clinics, foundations and other non-public providers of paramedical care, including psychologists, physiotherapists and similar professions, operating through corporate or foundation structures.

C-134/97 Victoria Film

Judgment · 12 November 1998 · Sweden

Whether a tax rulings board may refer questions to the Court

The Court declined jurisdiction. Although the Revenue Board is independent, statutory and issues binding decisions, when giving an advance decision on request it acts before any tax authority decision exists, adopting a first view on the tax treatment of a transaction rather than reviewing legality. That is an administrative function, comparable to binding tariff information, not proceedings intended to lead to a judicial decision. Only a court hearing a challenge to such a decision may refer. None of the substantive questions on the Swedish copyright exemption or on invoking taxability to obtain deduction were answered.

C-62/93 BP Supergas

Judgment · 6 July 1995 · Greece

Special petroleum VAT regime and the right to deduct

The regime is precluded because Article 11 requires taxation at each marketing stage on the value at that stage, and the right of deduction may be limited only by derogations expressly provided for. Greece's transmission of the whole draft law, without a notification expressly referring to Article 27(2), did not secure Council authorisation. The general exemption for transport and storage exceeded Article 14. The taxable amount and deduction provisions have direct effect, and refunds run retroactively, subject to national procedural rules meeting equivalence and effectiveness. Confirms that sector specific regimes replacing staged taxation with a single upstream charge, and stripping the sector of deduction, are unlawful absent a properly notified Article 27 derogation.

C-159/89 Commission v Greece

Judgment · 26 February 1991 · Greece

Residual VAT on goods imported by non-taxable persons

Greece failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 95. Where domestic supplies of similar goods by non-taxable persons are untaxed, the residual export-state VAT must be excluded from the taxable amount and deducted from import VAT. Direct effect is only a minimum guarantee. National rules must be worded unequivocally. Absence of a common system, and arguments about the consumption-tax nature of VAT or revenue apportionment, are matters for the legislature and do not suspend Article 95. Confirms that Member States must legislate positively, not merely leave taxpayers to invoke directly effective Treaty rights before national courts.

C-50/88 Kühne v Finanzamt München Iil

Judgment · 27 June 1989 · Germany

Private use of business goods bought from a non-taxable person

Depreciation of business goods cannot be taxed on private use where no VAT on the acquisition was deductible, including where the goods came from a non-taxable person. That is unaffected by the fact that VAT on maintenance and running costs was deductible, those two regimes being distinct. The Article 6(2) derogation cannot be used to tax such use. Taxing the maintenance and use expenses on which tax was deducted remains consistent with the system. Article 6(2) may be relied on directly before national courts. Confirms the split treatment of mixed-use assets acquired without deductible input tax.

C-207/87 Weissgerber v Finanzamt Neustadt/Weinstraße

Judgment · 14 July 1988 · Germany

Direct effect of the credit negotiation exemption and the meaning of not passing on the tax

The earlier case law is confirmed. The exemption may be relied upon for both periods, provided the negotiator did not pass the tax on to the recipient of his services so as to entitle that recipient to deduct input tax. That is the qualification. The condition exists only to protect traders who have already deducted, so it bites only where the tax was passed on with the formalities prescribed by the Directive and the recipient is himself taxable. Economic or covert inclusion in the commission is not enough. Of historical interest as to the German transitional period, but the reasoning remains the reference point for direct reliance on an unimplemented or misapplied exemption.

C-255/81 Grendel

Judgment · 10 June 1982 · Germany

Direct effect of the exemption for credit negotiation

The Court, applying its earlier ruling in Becker (Case 8/81), held that from 01-01-1979 a credit negotiator could rely on the exemption in Article 13B(d)(1) in the absence of implementation, provided he had refrained from passing the tax on to persons following him in the chain of supply. The State could not plead its own failure to implement against him. The Becker judgment was annexed by way of supplement. Confirms Becker for a second fact pattern and settles the point for German credit intermediaries assessed for 1979.

C-15/81 Schul

Judgment · 5 May 1982 · Netherlands

VAT on goods imported from another Member State supplied by a private individual

Not a charge equivalent to a customs duty. The tax forms part of a general system of internal taxation. But it breaches Article 95 in so far as no account is taken of the residual VAT paid in the exporting Member State still incorporated in the goods' value on importation. That residue must be deducted, capped at the VAT actually paid there. Article 2(2) of the Sixth Directive remains valid, read consistently with that obligation. Article 95 is directly effective. The importer bears the burden of proof. Establishes that importation VAT on goods coming from private individuals must be reduced by the residual VAT embedded from the exporting State, a foundational precedent for the taxation of second-hand goods moving between private persons and for the neutrality principle generally.

C-8/81 Becker

Judgment · 19 January 1982 · Germany

Direct effect of the credit negotiation exemption

The provision could be relied on from 01-01-1979 against the non-implementing State, provided the credit negotiator had not passed the tax on at the next stage. It is sufficiently precise and unconditional. The "conditions" in Article 13B concern only correct application and anti-fraud measures, and Article 13C reserves an option exercisable by the taxpayer, not a power for the State to restrict the exemption. Claiming exemption entails forgoing input tax deduction. The foundational authority on direct effect of VAT Directive provisions.

C-51/76 Verbond nederlandse ondernemingen v Inspecteur der invoerrechten en accijnzen

Judgment · 1 February 1977 · Netherlands

Meaning of capital goods and the direct effect of the deduction right

Capital goods is a Community concept. Goods used for business purposes, distinguishable by their durable nature and value, whose acquisition costs are normally written off over several years rather than treated as current expenditure. The individual undertaking's own accounting choices are not decisive. Normal sectoral practice is. Member States retain a margin of discretion over durability, value and write-off rules, provided they respect the essential difference between capital goods and goods used in day to day running. National courts must police that limit when Article 11(1) is invoked. The foundational ruling on the boundary between capital goods and general costs, and an early statement that a taxable person may invoke a directive to test whether national derogations stay within their permitted limits.

C-20/70 Transports Lesage & cie. v Hauptzollamt Freiburg

Judgment · 21 October 1970 · Germany

Direct effect of the prohibition on specific transport taxes alongside VAT

The obligation not to cumulate the common turnover tax system with specific taxes equivalent to turnover tax is unconditional, clear and precise, and can produce direct effect in relations between Member States and their taxpayers, notwithstanding that it appears in a Decision and a Directive rather than a Regulation. The prohibition bites only from the Community-wide date set by the Third Directive of 09-12-1969, namely 01-01-1972. A tax on the mere fact of road carriage, measured by tonne/kilometres rather than consideration, does not have the normal features of a turnover tax. An early foundation for direct effect of Decisions and Directives, still cited when taxpayers invoke unimplemented or transitional Community tax obligations.

C-23/70 Haselhorst v Finanzamt Düsseldorf

Judgment · 21 October 1970 · Germany

Direct effect of a Council decision and the meaning of specific transport taxes

The prohibition is unconditional, clear and precise, and can produce direct effects, so individuals may invoke it before national courts, decisions and directives not being confined to the effects of regulations. However, it becomes effective only on the Community-wide date, 01-01-1972, set by the Third Directive. Before then Member States retain freedom of action. A charge levied on the activity of carrying goods by road, assessed on tonnes/kilometres and not on consideration, is not the usual form of turnover tax. An early confirmation that obligations in Council decisions, read with directives, are invocable by taxpayers, but that harmonisation deadlines fix when they bite.

C-9/70 Grad v Finanzamt Traunstein

Judgment · 6 October 1970 · Germany

Direct effect of the ban on levying specific taxes alongside the common turnover tax system

The Court rules that the provision is capable of producing direct effects and creates rights that individuals may invoke before national courts. The prohibition takes effect on the date fixed by the Third Directive, namely 01-01-1972. A tax levied not on commercial transactions but simply because goods are carried by road, and assessed on the physical load in tonne kilometres rather than on consideration, does not correspond to the usual form of a turnover tax. Better known in constitutional law as the case that extended direct effect to decisions, this is also a starting point of the case law on what counts as a turnover tax.