62019CJ0868_INF
Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 15 April 2021 – Finanzamt für Körperschaften Berlin
(Case C‑868/19)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Value-added tax (VAT) – Directive 2006/112/EC – Article 9 – Taxable persons – Article 11 – Option for the Member States to treat as a single taxable person persons who are independent from a legal point of view but are closely linked to one another financially, economically and organisationally (‘VAT group’) – Concept of ‘close financial links’ – National legislation according to which partnerships, whose partners, alongside the controlling company, are not solely financially integrated persons in the undertaking of the controlling company, are prevented from being a member of a VAT group – Legal certainty – Preventative measures against fraud and tax evasion – Proportionality – VAT neutrality)
1.
Harmonisation of fiscal legislation – Common system of value added tax – Taxable persons – Concept – First paragraph of Article 11 of Directive 2006/112 – Direct effect – None
(Council Directive 2006/112, Art. 11, first para.)
(see para. 43)
2.
Harmonisation of fiscal legislation – Common system of value added tax – Taxable persons – Concept – Option for Member States to regard persons who are closely linked as a single taxable person – National legislation which makes the option for a partnership to create, with the undertaking of the controlling company, a group of persons which may be considered to be a single taxable person, subject to the financial integration of its partner in that undertaking – Inadmissibility in the light of the principles of legal certainty, proportionality and fiscal neutrality
(Council Directive 2006/112, Art 11)
(see paras 45-55, 57, 58, 61, 63-65, 68, operative part)
Operative part
Article 11 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, read in light of the principles of legal certainty, proportionality and fiscal neutrality, must be interpreted as meaning that it precludes a national law which makes the option for a partnership to create, alongside the undertaking of the controlling company, a group of persons which may be considered to be a single taxable person for value added tax, on the condition that the partners in the partnership, alongside the controlling company, are solely persons who are financially integrated in that undertaking.