Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2006:332
Date: 2006-05-18
Language of the case: Finnish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Citizenship of the Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Finland

Summary of the Judgment 1. Freedom of movement for persons – Workers – Provisions of the Treaty – Scope ratione personae (Art. 39 EC) 2. Citizens of the European Union – Right of free movement and freedom of residence in the territory of the Member States – Tax legislation (Art. 18 EC) 1. Persons who have carried out all their occupational activity in the Member State of which they are nationals and who have exercised the right to reside in another Member State only after their retirement, without any intention of working in that State, cannot rely on the freedom of movement guaranteed by Article 39 EC. (see para. 16) 2. Article 18 EC must be interpreted as precluding national legislation according to which the income tax on a retirement pension paid by an institution of the Member State concerned to a person residing in another Member State exceeds in certain cases the tax which would be payable if that person resided in the first Member State, where that pension constitutes all or nearly all of that person’s income. National legislation which places some of its nationals at a disadvantage simply because they have exercised their freedom to move and to reside in another Member State gives rise to inequality of treatment, contrary to the principles which underpin the status of citizen of the Union, that is, the guarantee of the same treatment in law in the exercise of the citizen’s freedom to move. It is true that, in relation to direct taxes, the situations of residents and of non-residents are not, as a rule, comparable. However, in so far as the retirement pension paid in a Member State constitutes all or almost all of their income, non-resident retired persons are, objectively speaking, in the same situation as regards income tax as retired persons resident in that State who receive the same retirement pension. (see paras 22, 26, 31, 39, operative part)