Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:294
Date: 1999-06-10
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Anti-discrimination;Non-discrimination on grounds of nationality
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Denmark

Summary of the Judgment 
Freedom to provide services — Restrictions — Deduction of expenditure related to 
professional training courses from taxable income — National legislation introducing a 
presumption that expenditure relating to courses organised in other Member States is non­
deductible — Not permissible — Whether justified on grounds of public interest or by the 
need to preserve fiscal cohesion — No such justification 
(EC Treaty, Art. 59 (now, after amendment, Art 49 EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-55/98 
Article 59 of the Treaty (now, after amend­
ment, Article 49 EC) precludes a Member 
State from having rules which, for the 
purposes of determining taxable income, 
are based on the presumption that profes­
sional training courses held in ordinary 
tourist resorts located in other Member 
States involve such a significant tourism 
element that the costs of taking part in 
those courses cannot be treated as deduc­
tible operating costs, whereas there is no 
such presumption in the case of profes­
sional training courses held in ordinary 
tourist resorts located within the territory 
of that Member State. 
Such rules, which make it more difficult to 
deduct costs relating to participation in 
professional training courses organised 
abroad than to deduct costs relating to 
such courses organised in the national 
territory involve a difference in treatment, 
based on the place where the service is 
provided, which cannot be justified by the 
need to preserve fiscal cohesion or by the 
need for effective fiscal supervision. 
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