Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:175
Date: 1999-03-25
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC;Privileges and immunities
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
Privileges and immunities of the European Communities — Officials and servants of the 
Communities — Exemption from national taxes of remuneration paid by the Commu­
nities — Scope — Tax on the income of natural persons — Whether permissible 
(Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, Art. 13) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-229/98 
Article 13 of the Protocol on the Privileges 
and Immunities of the European Commu­
nities does not preclude a Member State, 
which grants tax relief to households with a 
single income and to those with two 
incomes, the second of which is less than 
a certain index-linked sum, from refusing 
that benefit to households in which one 
spouse is an official or other servant of the 
European Communities where his salary 
exceeds that amount. 
The reason for exclusion from the benefit is 
not the fact of being a Community official 
in receipt of an income in excess of the 
index-linked sum, but stems from the 
general condition, which applies without 
discrimination to spouses, one of whom is 
an official, as it does to any other taxpayer, 
regarding the amount of income giving 
entitlement to the benefit at issue. 
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