CELEX: C2006/074/06
Language: en
Date: 2006-03-25 00:00:00
Title: Case C-464/05: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Burgerlijke Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg, Hasselt, by order of that court of  21 December 2005  in M.C.J.A. Geurts and D.H.M. Vogten v The Belgian State, Federale Overheidsdienst Financiën

25.3.2006   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 74/3
            
         Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Burgerlijke Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg, Hasselt, by order of that court of 21 December 2005 in M.C.J.A. Geurts and D.H.M. Vogten v The Belgian State, Federale Overheidsdienst Financiën
   (Case C-464/05)
   (2006/C 74/06)
   Language of the case: Dutch
   Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the European Communities by order of the Burgerlijke Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg (Civil Court of First Instance), Hasselt (Belgium) of 21 December 2005, received at the Court Registry on 27 December 2005, for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings between M.C.J.A. Geurts and D.H.M. Vogten and The Belgian State, Federale Overheidsdienst Financiën (Federal Finance Authority) on the following question:
   
                
            
            
               Must Community law, and in particular Articles 43 EC and 56 EC, be interpreted as meaning that a restriction arising from a provision in the legislation of a region of a Member State concerning inheritance, in this case Article 60a of the Belgian Wetboek van Successierechten as applicable to an estate arising in the Flemish Region, which exempts the shares in a family company or the claims of the legal successor of the deceased, his heir, against such a company from inheritance tax if the company has employed at least five workers in the three years prior to the death of the deceased, but restricts that exemption to cases in which at least five workers have been employed in a particular region of that Member State (in casu, the Flemish Region), is incompatible with those articles?