News

29.09.2026

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For September 2026

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For September 2026

September

T-397/25 of 2 September 2026

Common system of VAT — Transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof — Concomitant and separate letting contract of an immovable property — Taking over a business — Building let by the transferor to the transferee of a business and used by the transferee for the purpose of carrying out the taxable activity taken over — Adjustment of the VAT deduction by the transferor — Concept of „transfer of a totality of assets“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Value added tax. Adjustment of deductions. Letting of the business premises by the transferor to the transferee. Where, in the event of the transfer of a business as a transfer of a totality of assets, the transferor of that business lets, exempt from VAT, to the transferee, an immovable property and that property continues to be used by the transferee in respect of the exercise of the taxable activity taken over, an adjustment must be made, by the transferor, to the VAT deduction. Concept of „transfer of a totality of assets“.
Proceedings concerning, first, whether the special scheme provided for in Articles 19 and 29 of the VAT Directive is applicable to an immovable property let at the same time as the transfer of a business, made in respect of the transfer of a totality of assets by the transferor to the transferee of that business, where that immovable property is used for the purpose of the taxable activity taken over, and, second, where appropriate, the effect of that scheme on the adjustment of the deductions provided for in Articles 184 to 190 of that directive..

T-413/25 of 2 September 2026

VAT — Supply of goods for consideration — Application of a business asset transferred free of charge or applied for purposes other than those of the business — Transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof — Contribution of developed properties — Option for the Member States to exclude the transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof from the scope of VAT

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

National legislation according the rule that no supply of goods has taken place upon the transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof to a taxable person, solely to transfers of certain assets or activities. The contribution, by a taxable person, of developed properties, let subject to VAT, in respect of which VAT is deductible, to an undertaking of which the taxable person is the sole shareholder, without any new shares being granted to that taxable person as consideration for that contribution, does not constitute a supply of goods for consideration.
Proceedings concerning the treatment of a contribution of immovable properties with regard to value added tax.

C-60/25 of 3 September 2026

Competition — Cartels — European Commission decisions finding an infringement of Article 101 TFEU —Binding effect of those decisions on a national court or tribunal — Single and continuous infringement in the Euro Interest Rate Derivatives sector — Agreements and concerted practices having as their object the distortion of the normal course of pricing components in that sector — Dispute between a borrower and the funding bank concerning the validity of an interest rate referring to Euribor

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Automatic nullity of agreements prohibited under Article 101 TFEU. The decision by which the Commission found the existence of a cartel and that an interest rate benchmark had been manipulated on a specific market does not render automatically void every term of a contract referring to that interest. Euro interest rate derivatives sector. Binding force of the European Commission’s decision on a national court. Dispute between a borrower and the lending bank concerning the validity of an interest rate indexed to Euribor.
Proceedings concerning the validity of a term of the mortgage loan agreement concluded between them which refers to Euribor for the purpose of determining the interest rate on that loan.

C-147/25 of 3 September 2026

Restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine — National measure providing for the freezing of funds and economic resources belonging to a legal person owing to the existence of links with a person sanctioned by the European Union — Standard of proof of the links with the sanctioned person

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Common Foreign and Security Policy. The general principle of EU law relating to the right to good administration allows a legal person, whose name does not appear is included on a list of persons whose assets are to be frozen. The right to effective judicial protection allows a review of the legality of a measure adopted by a national authority implementing the imposed restrictive measures with regard to a legal person, whose name does not appear in Regulation 2014/145.
Proceedings concerning the inclusion of a company on a list of persons linked to persons subject to restrictive measures.

T-366/25 of 9 September 2026

Common system of VAT — Transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof — Donation of an undertaking in two equal shares to two individuals — Subsequent transfer of the shares to a general partnership owned by the individuals who were the beneficiaries of the donation — Concept of „transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

A transfer, without consideration, of an undertaking to two natural persons, each receiving a half share, who intend immediately to make a contribution in kind of those shares to a company carrying on an economic activity, of which they are partners, does not constitute a transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof within the meaning of the VAT Directive. Analysis of a series of transactions. Concept of „transfer of a totality of assets or part thereof“.
Proceedings concerning a tax ruling on the exemption from value added tax of a donation of assets.

T-614/25 of 9 September 2026

Common system of valued added tax — Exemptions for intra-community transactions — Exemptions for intra-Community acquisitions of goods — Chain of supplies with a single intra-Community transport — Triangular transaction — Transport under an excise duty suspension arrangement — Transfer of the right to dispose of goods to the person acquiring the goods

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Upon a supply of goods which are subject to excise duty, made under an excise duty suspension arrangement in the context of a triangular transaction, the taxable person registered for VAT in the third Member State is liable for payment of VAT. A ground for exempting from VAT a supply made by a taxable person registered for VAT in the first Member State to an intermediary acquiring the goods registered for VAT in the second Member State. Exemption of supplies of goods.
Proceedings concerning the exemption from value added tax for supplies, made in the context of a chain of various successive supplies involving a single transport within the European Union, to undertakings established in Estonia and the United Kingdom, of goods subject to excise duty and transported, under the duty suspension arrangement, to customers of those undertakings, in other Member States of the European Union.

C-565/24 of 10 September 2026

Value added tax — Специални режими — Travel agents — Excursion organised by a trader away from his or her business premises — Taxation under the margin scheme without deduction of the input VAT paid — Negative margin potentially leading to a VAT refund

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Right to a refund of input VAT where the margin of a single supply is negative. Special scheme for travel agents. Excursions combined with sale of goods. Margin taxation. Negative margin. No right to deduct. A taxable person provides tourist services at a loss, and therefore does not generate added value from those services, but its business is profitable thanks to the sale of goods.
Proceedings, concerning a value added tax assessment notice relating to excursions.

C-655/24 of 10 September 2026

Area of freedom, security and justice — Confiscation of crime-related proceeds, instrumentalities and property — Traffic offence punishable by a custodial sentence of more than one year — Driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol — Freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union — Applicability ratione temporis

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Asset recovery and confiscation. Confiscation of instrumentalities of crime. Confiscation of the vehicle or its value if the vehicle does not belong to the perpetrator of the offence. Motor vehicles as instrumentalities of crime. Traffic offence consisting of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. The confiscation of a vehicle for the prevention of such an offence is not governed by EU law.
Criminal proceedings brought against EZ, following his conviction for driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, an offence punishable by a custodial sentence of more than one year, with a view to confiscating that vehicle.

C-139/25 of 17 September 2026

Free movement of capital — Taxation of dividends received by an investment fund — Difference in treatment between resident and non-resident investment funds — Bilateral tax convention for the avoidance of double taxation — Neutralisation of a possible restriction on the free movement of capital by means of the convention

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

A restriction on the free movement of capital may be considered to be neutralised by the application of a bilateral tax convention for the avoidance of double taxation, concluded between the State of residence of a collective investment undertaking and the Member State in which dividends are paid, where that collective investment undertaking benefits, in its State of residence, from a tax transparency regime under which it is not taxed on the dividends received and transfers to its unit-holders those dividends and the tax credit corresponding to the withholding tax levied in the Member State in which those dividends are paid.
Proceedings, concerning the rate of tax on the income of non-residents that was applied to dividends from investments in shares of Spanish companies.

C-437/25 of 17 September 2026

Rules on fines and periodic penalty payments — Transport — Use of a driver card belonging to another person — Penalty — Flat-rate fine — Principle of proportionality

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Social legislation relating to road transport activities. The principle of proportionality precludes national legislation under which a very high fine is imposed on a driver of a vehicle who has breached the prohibition fitting a driver card belonging to another person into the tachograph of his or her vehicle, without there being any possibility of reducing that fine.
Proceedings, concerning the lawfulness of an administrative fine issued to a driver who engaged in the cross-border transport of goods with a driver card that was not his own.

C-600/25 of 24 September 2026

Rural development support measures — Lease agreement concluded between a municipal authority and an aid beneficiary — Termination of the lease agreement further to a legislative reform — Obligation to reimburse the aid received in part or in full — Liability of Member States for loss or damage caused to individuals by infringements of EU law — Concepts of ‘force majeure’ and ‘exceptional circumstances’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Common agricultural policy. Lease or letting agreement. ‘Force majeure’ and ‘exceptional circumstances’. Loss of the right to use land subject to a multiannual commitment on account of the termination of the lease following a legislative amendment post-dating the making of that commitment. The principle of the liability of a Member State for infringements of EU law attributable to that Member State. Conditions of engagement.
Proceedings between M.., a Bulgarian farmer, and the National Agricultural Fund, Bulgaria, seeking to obtain compensation for the damage he claims to have suffered as a result of the obligation to reimburse 50% of the amount of the agricultural subsidies that he received.