Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2017:849
Date: 2017-11-09
Language of the case: Bulgarian
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Subject matter: Taxation;Value added tax
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Bulgaria

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber), 9 November 2017 1. Harmonisation of fiscal legislation — Common system of value added tax — Taxable transactions — Supply of goods — Dissolution of a company ordered by court decision — National legislation providing for the compulsory removal from the value added tax register of that company — Obligation to calculate the input value added tax due or paid on the available assets and to pay it to the State — Lawfulness — Condition (Council Directive 2006/112) 2. Harmonisation of fiscal legislation — Common system of value added tax — Deduction of input tax — Origin and scope of the right to deduct — Goods and services used for the purposes of the taxable person’s taxable transactions — Dissolution of a company ordered by court decision — National legislation providing for the compulsory removal from the value added tax register of that company — Obligation to calculate the input value added tax due or paid on the available assets and to pay it to the State — Company continuing to carry out economic transactions whilst placed under liquidation — Right to deduct the tax subject to compliance with that obligation — Unlawful (Council Directive 2006/112, Art. 168) 1. Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation pursuant to which the compulsory removal from the value added tax (VAT) register of a company whose dissolution has been ordered by court decision results in the obligation to calculate the input VAT due or paid on the available assets on the date of the dissolution of that company and to pay it to the State, on condition that that company no longer carries out economic transactions as from its dissolution. When a company ceases to carry out a taxable economic activity, except in the cases of transfer to a company of a totality of assets or part thereof referred to in Article 19 of the VAT Directive, that directive provides expressly in Article 18(c) thereof that the retention of goods by a taxable person or by his successors may be treated as a supply of goods for consideration, where those goods have given rise to a deduction. The Court has made clear that Article 18(c) concerns the cessation of the taxable economic activity in general, without differentiating between the causes or the circumstances of that cessation, apart from the exception mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and that that provision consequently also covers the cessation of the taxable economic activity resulting from the removal of the taxable person from the VAT register (judgment of 8 May 2013, Marinov, C‑142/12, EU:C:2013:292, paragraphs 26 and 28). As is clear from the actual wording of Article 18(c) of the VAT Directive and from the objective pursued by that provision, that analysis applies however only in the situation where the taxable economic activity of the person concerned has ceased and where that person no longer carries out taxable transactions. (see paras 36, 37, 40, 48, operative part 1) 2. Directive 2006/112, in particular Article 168 thereof, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, pursuant to which the compulsory removal from the VAT register of a company whose dissolution has been ordered by court decision results, even where that company continues to carry out economic transactions whilst being placed under liquidation, in the obligation to calculate the input VAT due or paid on the available assets on the date of that dissolution and to pay it to the State and which, therefore, makes the right to deduct subject to compliance with that obligation. (see para. 48, operative part 2)