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09.05.2022

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For April 2022

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For April 2022

Tax&Financial Standards (T&FSt) – International Financial Reporting Standards, Date or entry into force: 1.01.2022 (consolidated version), in 4 languages - Bulgarian, English, German and French

New judgments

Value added tax –Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest – Exemption for hospital and medical care – Private hospital – Duly recognised establishment - In what circumstances is a privately run hospital entitled to avail of the VAT exemption provided in respect of medical treatment and care for public hospitals - Concept of ‘social conditions comparable with those applicable to bodies governed by public law’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

National legislation which stipulates that the provision of medical care by a private hospital is to be exempt from VAT if that hospital is approved in accordance with the national provisions. In order to determine whether medical care provided by a private hospital is supplied under social conditions comparable with those applicable to bodies governed by public law, the competent authorities of a Member State may take into consideration the regulatory conditions applicable to the services supplied by hospitals governed by public law and indicators of that private hospital’s performance.

Concept of ‘social conditions comparable with those applicable to bodies governed by public law’.

Proceedings concerning the exemption from value added tax for hospital services.

Consumer protection — Distance contracts concluded by electronic means — Information requirements for the trader — Activation of a button or a similar function in order to place the order with an obligation to pay — Unambiguous formulation corresponding to the words ‘order with obligation to pay’ — Concept of „distance contract“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Consumer rights. An ordering process relating to the conclusion of a distance contract by electronic. Determining, whether a form of words displayed on the ordering button or on a similar function, such as the formulation ‘complete booking’, is a formulation ‘corresponding’ to the words ‘order with obligation to pay’ only the words that appear on that button or that similar function should be taken into account.

Concept of „distance contract“.

Proceedings between F and B concerning the formation or non-formation of a contract between them for accommodation.

Value added tax — Place of supply of services — Point of reference for tax purposes — Company from one Member State affiliated to a company located in another Member State — Suitable structure in terms of human and technical resources — Ability to receive and use the services for the fixed establishment’s own needs — Marketing, regulatory, advertising and representation services provided by a related company to the recipient company — Concept of a ‘fixed establishment’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

VAT Directive, on the place of taxable transactions. Supply of services. A company with its registered office in one Member State, which does not have a fixed establishment in another Member State on the ground that that company owns a subsidiary there that makes available to it human and technical resources under contracts by means of which that subsidiary provides, exclusively to it, marketing, regulatory, advertising and representation services that are capable of having a direct influence on the volume of its sales.

Concept of a ‘fixed establishment’.

Proceedings between B and the tax authority concerning an application for annulment of a decision imposing additional value added tax and ancillary tax liabilities, and a claim for reimbursement of the additional VAT and ancillary tax obligations.

Union Customs Code - Goods unlawfully introduced into the customs territory of the European Union – Seizure and confiscation - Extinguishment of the customs debt – Excise duties - Value added tax - Chargeable event

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Smuggled merchandise seized and subsequently confiscated after entry into the EU customs territory. Extinguishment of a customs debt. Consequences for the levying of excise duty and. The extinguishment of the customs debt does not lead to the extinguishment of the debt linked, respectively, to excise duty and to value added tax in respect of goods unlawfully introduced into the customs territory of the European Union.

Proceedings concerning a decision determining the amount of excise duty and value added tax payable by UB following the unlawful introduction of cigarettes from Belarus into the territory of Lithuania.

 

March

 

Procurement - Technical and professional skills of tenderers — Protection of the financial interests of the European Union - Control measures — Possibility for national authorities protecting the Union's financial interests to evaluate the procurement procedure differently

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

In the context of a procurement procedure, the contracting authority may impose, as selection criteria relating to the technical and professional capacity of economic operators, requirements that are more stringent than the minimum requirements laid down by national law. National authorities safeguarding the financial interests of the Union may assess differently the same circumstances in a procurement procedure.

Dispute between L and the Court of Auditors concerning an administrative sanction imposed on it by the latter for irregularities committed in a procurement procedure.

Consumer protection - Foreign currency loan intended to be repaid in national currency - Contractual clause imposing currency risk on the consumer - Unfair nature of a clause related to the main subject of the contract - Invalidity of the contract - Significant harm to the consumer - Non-binding opinion of the Supreme Court - Possibility of recovering from the parties the situation in which they would have found themselves if this contract had not been concluded

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Unfair clauses.. Loan agreements. In the absence of a dispositive rule of national law, the effectiveness of the provisions of a directive cannot be ensured only by a non-binding opinion of the supreme court of the Member State concerned, indicating to the lower courts the approach to be followed. A decision of a national court to restore to the parties to a loan agreement the situation in which they would have been if that agreement had not been concluded, since a clause in that agreement relating to its main subject-matter must be declared unfair.

Proceedings concerning the legal consequences of a contractual clause on the currency risk borne by the consumer in the case of a foreign currency credit agreement which, however, is intended to be repaid in national currency.