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30.04.2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For April 2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For April 2025

April

С-164/24 of 3 April 2025

Common system of value added tax — Persistent failure to comply with tax obligations — Removal of the taxable person from the value added tax (VAT) identification register — Principle of proportionality
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
The principles of legal certainty and proportionality don’t preclude national legislation which, as interpreted by the tax authorities and the national courts, provides for the possibility for the competent tax authority to remove a taxable person from the VAT register on the ground of a failure to comply with VAT obligations on that taxable person’s part, without that tax authority analysing the nature of the infringements committed.
Proceedings, concerning the removal of a company from the value added tax (VAT) register.

С-213/24 of 3 April 2025

Common system of value added tax — Sale of agricultural land for residential development  — Preparation for sale by an agent acting as a professional trader — Statutory joint ownership of assets between co-owning spouses — Concepts of ‘economic activity’ and ‘taxable person’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
A person who transfers land which was initially part of his or her personal assets by entrusting the preparation of the sale to a professional trader may be regarded as a taxable person subject to VAT carrying out an economic activity independently.
In the context of a sales transaction classified as an economic activity the statutory joint ownership formed by co-owning spouses is regarded as a taxable person carrying out an economic activity independently, where those spouses appear to have carried out together the sale of land falling within that joint ownership, which constitutes an economic activity. Concepts of ‘economic activity’ and ‘taxable person’.
Proceedings, concerning a natural person’s liability to value added tax for the sale of several plots of land.

С-228/24 of 3 April 2025

Taxation — Exemption from corporation tax in respect of dividends paid by a non-resident subsidiary to a resident parent company — Anti-abuse provision — Classification of the subsidiary as a non-genuine arrangement — Steps of an arrangement — Tax advantage
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Common system of taxation applicable in the case of parent companies and subsidiaries of different Member States. A parent company is denied, in its Member State of residence, an exemption from corporation tax in respect of dividends received from a subsidiary established in another Member State on the ground that that subsidiary is a non-genuine arrangement.
Proceedings between N, a company incorporated under Lithuanian law, and State Tax Inspectorate concerning an exemption from corporation tax in respect of dividends distributed to N by its subsidiary, resident in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

С-723/23 of 10 April 2025

Procedures concerning restructuring, insolvency and discharge of debt — Access to discharge — Derogations — Natural person who has become insolvent — Conditions for access to discharge of debt — Conduct towards creditors of a third party
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Judicial cooperation in civil matters. Discharge of debt and disqualifications. A national legislation which excludes access to discharge of debt where the debtor has acted dishonestly or in bad faith towards the creditors of a third party and has been declared a ‘person concerned’ in the context of a judicial declaration of the fault-based insolvency of that third party.
Proceedings, concerning an application for discharge of debt filed by a natural person in the course of the insolvency proceedings concerning him.

March

С-67/24 of 27 March 2025

Judicial cooperation in civil matters – Jurisdiction in matters relating to maintenance obligations – Maintenance allowances set by a decision of a court of a third State – Maintenance creditors residing in that third State and holding either the nationality of that third State alone or the nationality of that third State and of a Member State – Maintenance debtor, a national of that Member State and habitually resident in that Member State
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Area of freedom, security and justice. An application to modify a decision on maintenance obligations given by a court of a third State other than a State which is a contracting party to the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance seeking termination of the obligations concerned, is brought before a court of a Member State by the maintenance debtor, a national of that Member State, against the maintenance creditor, a national of that third State, falls within the concept of ‘an exceptional basis’, with the effect that a court of a Member State can hear a dispute pursuant to the rule on the jurisdiction of the forum necessitatis.
Proceedings concerning the modification of a decision of a court of a third State setting the amount of maintenance allowances.

С-186/24 of 27 March 2025

Insolvency proceedings – Awareness of the insolvency proceedings – Obligations for the benefit of a debtor which should be honoured for the benefit of the insolvency practitioner – Sale of an asset (car) by the debtor after the opening of the insolvency proceedings – Honouring of an obligation to a debtor - Concept of an ‘obligation honoured’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Awareness of the insolvency proceedings. Obligations honoured for the benefit of a debtor who is subject to insolvency proceedings, when they should have been honoured for the benefit of the insolvency practitioner, also include the honouring of an obligation arising from a legal act concluded by the debtor after the opening of those insolvency proceedings.
Concept of an ‘obligation honoured’.
Proceedings concerning the payment to the insolvency estate of an amount corresponding to the market value of a vehicle sold by the debtor after the opening of those proceedings.