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28.02.2023

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For February 2023

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For February 2023

Tax&Financial Standards (T&FSt) – International Financial Reporting Standards, Date or entry into force: 01.01.2023 (consolidated version), in 4 languages - Bulgarian, English, German and French

New judgments

Unfair terms in consumer contracts – Obligation to draft contractual clauses in plain intelligible language - ‘Unit-linked’ life assurance contracts linked to investment funds – Information on the nature and structure of the assurance product and the risks associated with that product – Misleading standard contracts – Legal consequences

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices. Misleading omission. The drafting by an assurance undertaking of a standard group life assurance contract linked to an investment fund which does not enable a consumer who is acceding to that group contract on the basis of a proposal from a second undertaking, the policyholder, to understand the nature and structure of the assurance product offered and the risks associated with it may constitute an ‘unfair commercial practice’.

Proceedings concerning the reimbursement of assurance premiums paid in respect of a group life assurance contract linked to an investment fund.

Value added tax - Tax base - Reduction - An insurer that pays compensation to an insured person for bad debts inclusive of VAT - National legislation that does not allow a reduction of the tax base by the insurer in its capacity as successor - Principle of fiscal neutrality - Principle of efficiency

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

The principles of proportionality, tax neutrality and efficiency should be interpreted as allowing a legal arrangement whereby a reduction of the tax base in the event of non-payment is not applicable to an insurer who, under a trade receivables insurance contract, pays an insured person as an indemnity for non-payment claiming a part of the amount for the tax base for the relevant taxable transaction with VAT included, when with this contract this part of the claim and all related rights are transferred to the insurer.

Proceedings concerning a request to reduce the tax base for value added tax.

Consumer protection — Credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property — Early repayment — Consumer’s right to a reduction in the total cost of the credit, consisting of the interest and the costs for the remaining duration of the contract — Costs that are independent of the duration of the agreement — Concept of ‘total cost of the credit to the consumer’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Reduction in the total cost of the credit. Proportional reduction in costs. Reduction in costs that are not dependent on the duration of the agreement. Costs owed to third parties. National legislation which provides that the consumer’s right to a reduction in the total cost of the credit in the event of early repayment of that credit includes only interests and costs which are dependent on the duration of the agreement.

Concept of ‘total cost of the credit to the consumer’.

Proceedings regarding U’s use of a standard clause in its mortgage credit agreements providing that, in the event of early repayment of the credit by the consumer, processing costs that are not dependent on the duration of the agreement will not be reimbursed.

Common agricultural policy — Inability of the beneficiaries to continue to comply with the commitments given — Absence of measures necessary to adapt the obligations of the beneficiary to the new situation of the holding — Concepts of ‘reparcelling’ and ‘land-consolidation measures’ and ‘force majeure and exceptional circumstances’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Support measures for rural development. Financial consequences for a beneficiary of agri-environment payments where a reparcelling or a land-consolidation measure took place on his or her holding. Reparcelling and land-consolidation measures. Inability of the beneficiary to continue to comply with commitments given. Absence of measures necessary to allow the commitments to be adapted to the new situation of the holding.

Concepts of ‘reparcelling’ and ‘land-consolidation measures’ and ‘force majeure and exceptional circumstances’

Proceedings between PV, a farmer, and the Director of the State Agricultural Fund, Bulgaria, concerning a decision requiring PV to reimburse 20% of the financing received by him under Measure 214 ‘Agri-environment payments’ of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013.

Judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters – Suspension of the enforcement of a judgment certified as a European Enforcement Order – Conditions - Enforcement proceedings - Effect of the European Enforcement Order - Suspension of the enforceability of a decision that has been certified as a European enforceable basis by the Member State of origin - Concept „exceptional circumstances“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims. Where the enforceability of a judgment certified as a European Enforcement Order has been suspended in the Member State of origin and the certificate has been produced before the court of the Member State of enforcement, that court is required to stay, on the basis of that judgment, the enforcement proceedings. European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims permitting the simultaneous application of the measures limiting the enforcement proceedings and requiring the provision of security, but not the simultaneous application of either one of those two measures and that staying the enforcement proceedings.

Concept „exceptional circumstances“.

Proceedings concerning a request for a stay of the enforcement proceedings on the basis of a European Enforcement Order.

Value added tax — Right to deduct VAT — Construction of a building complex by an association without legal personality — Association contract — Sale of the apartments of that building complex by certain members — Determination of the taxable person liable for the tax — Principle of fiscal neutrality — Concept of „taxable person “

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Parties to a contract relating to an association without legal personality, which was not registered with the competent tax authorities before the economic activity concerned commenced, which cannot be regarded as ‘taxable persons’. Principle of proportionality and principle of fiscal neutrality, which do not require, a taxable person, where it does not hold an invoice issued in its name, to be granted the right to deduct the input VAT paid by another party to an association without legal personality with a view to carrying out that association’s economic activity.

Proceedings concerning the imposition of value added tax on transactions for the sale of apartments.

 

January

 

Equal treatment in employment and occupation — Conditions for access to self-employment — Employment and working conditions — Prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation — Self-employed person working on the basis of a contract for specific work — Termination and non-renewal of contract — Freedom to choose a contracting party — Concepts of „employment”, “self-employment”, “occupation”, „conditions for access to employment” „employment and working conditions“ and „dismissal“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Right of self-employed person to protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Relationship between the prohibition of discrimination and freedom of contract. National legislation which has the effect of excluding from the protection against discrimination to be conferred by a directive, the refusal, based on the sexual orientation of a person, to conclude or renew with that person a contract.

Concepts of „employment”, “self-employment”, “occupation”, „conditions for access to employment” „employment and working conditions“ and „dismissal“.

Proceedings, concerning a claim for compensation for damage resulting from company’s refusal to renew the contract for specific work that it had concluded with the applicant on the ground, according to the latter, of his sexual orientation.