Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2018:302
Date: 2018-05-03
Language of the case: Portuguese
Subject matter: Taxation;Value added tax
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Portugal

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 7 August 2018 Harmonisation of fiscal legislation — Common system of value added tax — Deduction of input tax — Origin and scope of the right to deduct — Principle of neutrality — Non-resident company and its resident branch constituting two separate taxable entities because they each have a different tax identification number — Tax on debit notes issued by an economic interest group of which that company, but not its branch, is a member — Refusal of the right of deduction to the branch — Not permissible (Council Directive 2006/112, as amended by Directive 2010/45, Arts 167 and 168) Articles 167 and 168 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as amended by Council Directive 2010/45/EU of 13 July 2010, and the principle of neutrality must be interpreted as precluding the tax authority of a Member State from regarding a company which has its headquarters in another Member State and the branch which it has in the first of those States as constituting two separate taxable entities on the ground that each of those entities has a tax identification number, and, for that reason, from refusing that branch the right to deduct value added tax (VAT) on the debit notes issued by an economic interest group of which that company, and not its branch, is a member. (see para. 51, operative part)