Print

(June 30, 2015)

On June 30, 2015 the opinion of Advocate General Jääskinen in Case C‑276/14 Gmina Wrocław versus Minister Finansów (ECLI:EU:C:2015:431) was published on the website of the European Court of Justice (CJEU).

 

The question referred for a preliminary ruling

Can an organizational unit from the municipality (a local government in Poland), in the light of article 4, paragraph 2 TEU juncto article 5, paragraph 3 TEU, be regarded as a taxable person for VAT-purposes, if it caries out activities in an other capacity than as governmental authority as meant in Article 13 of the Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC), although it does not meet the condition of independence of article 9, paragraph 1 of the Directive?

 

The municipality, the Minister of Finance, the Polish government, the Greece government and the European Commission have submitted written observations and with the exception of Greece all of them were represented during the hearing held on May 5, 2015.

 

In the opinion the Advocate proposes to the Court that the question referred by Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny should be answered as follows:

Article 9, paragraph 1 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax should be interpreted in such way that an municipal organizational unit can only be considered to be subjected to a value added tax if it carries out its economic activities independently as meant in that article. It is a matter for the national court to ascertain whether based on the criteria as provided by the CJEU the municipal budget units of the main proceeding carry out their activities independently.

 

For further information click here to be forwarded to the text of the opinion as published on the website of the CJEU, which will open in a new window (The text of the opinion is not available in English, but is available in a.o. the French, Spanish, German, Italian and the Polish languages).

 

Copyright – internationaltaxplaza.info

 

 

 

Stay informed: Subscribe to International Tax Plaza’s Newsletter!

 

and

 

Follow International Tax Plaza on Twitter (@IntTaxPlaza)