Conference: Recent and Pending Cases at the ECJ on
Indirect Taxation
von: Capriles, Theo am 01.04.2014
On December 16-18, the Institute for Austrian and
International Tax Law of WU (Vienna University of Economics
and Business) in collaboration with the Taxation and Customs
Union Directorate of the European Commission hosted a
Conference: Court of Justice of the European Union:
Recent VAT Case Law. This conference focused on the
recent case law of the Court of Justice in the area of indirect
taxation
Richard Lyal, European Commission, bei seinem Vortrag
The conference was a vibrant success, which was particularly
gratifying to the Institute, as it was the Commission itself who first approached the Institute to
organize this event together and it was the first time the Institute hosted a conference on VAT Case
law.
Ben Terra, University of Amsterdam/University of Lund;
Donato Raponi, European Commission
In the conference, judgments rendered from January 2012
onwards and important previous judgments were analyzed
by panel consisting of leading academics, judges,
government representatives and business representatives
from all over Europe and as far as Australia. During the
conference the recent cases and the cases were dealt with
topic by topic. The panel topics included abuse and antiavoidance measures, taxable base and rates, treatment of
Public Bodies, exemptions, and deductions.
The discussions during the Conference ranged from broad
matter, such as what are the fundamental principles a VAT
system should embrace to more technical issues. For
example, the Public Bodies panel discussed recent judgments
by the European Court which hinged on the usage of the
word "persons", rather than to "taxable persons". This, as it
turns out, has a significant impact in the tax treatment of
public bodies.
v.l.: Rebecca Millar, The University of Sydney; Richard
Lyal,
European
Commission;
Joachim
Englisch,
Universität Münster; Oskar Henkow, Lund University
The tax base/rates panel, for instance, concentrated on the tendency of the European Court of
Justice to disregard the application of favourable tax rates, as well as the exclusion from the taxable
basis of activities that cannot be deemed to be necessary to cover basic social needs (such as bingo
winning, the supply of greyhounds and horses not intended for the preparation of foodstuffs, but
also certain kind of medicines and health products).
The Exemptions panel, for example, focused on decisions of the ECJ involving immovable properties
exemptions, and other miscellaneous topics, including single cases regarding specific situations,
such as the supply of an aircraft to an operator who is not itself an airline operating.
A book containing in detail the research produced by the panellist attending this conference will be
coming out in the spring. By large, while there was much debate on the narrow and technical legal
issues, there seemed to be a consensus among the panellist on the broad issues such as the need to
modernize the VAT System. The weaknesses in the current VAT system mentioned identifies include
system - intra-Community trade, certain exemptions and the burden on business. But the
consensus appeared that system as it currently stands represents a barrier to trade and to the
functioning of the single market and hinders Europe's competitiveness.
Picking up on that theme, a key message that emerged from this conference was that as the VAT
system needs modernisation, it would be valuable if there is more dialogue between practitioners,
academic and Member States to propel Governments that we cannot afford not to modernise the
Directive. Furthermore, as modernization will not happen overnight and the Court continues to be
the key player in clarifying VAT law, the discussions fomented by the conference are necessary to
properly consider the impact of judgements from the court, and to make sure that there are no 28
interpretations of an ECJ case. Indeed, the demand for further dialogue on this area remains high
and the contributions of the research necessary.