CELEX: 62009CA0384
Language: en
Date: 2011-05-05 00:00:00
Title: Case C-384/09: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 5 May 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris — France) — Prunus SARL, Polonium SA v Directeur des services fiscaux (Direct taxation — Free movement of capital — Article 64 TFEU — Legal persons established in a non-Member State — Ownership of immovable property located in a Member State — Tax on the market value of that property — Refusal of exemption — Assessment with regard to overseas countries and territories — Combating tax evasion — Joint and several liability)

25.6.2011   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 186/4
            
         Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 5 May 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris — France) — Prunus SARL, Polonium SA v Directeur des services fiscaux
   (Case C-384/09) (1)
   
   (Direct taxation - Free movement of capital - Article 64 TFEU - Legal persons established in a non-Member State - Ownership of immovable property located in a Member State - Tax on the market value of that property - Refusal of exemption - Assessment with regard to overseas countries and territories - Combating tax evasion - Joint and several liability)
   2011/C 186/07
   Language of the case: French
   
      Referring court
   
   Tribunal de grande instance de Paris
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicants: Prunus SARL, Polonium SA
   
      Defendant: Directeur des services fiscaux
   
      Re:
   
   Reference for a preliminary ruling — Tribunal de grande instance (Paris) — Interpretation of Article 56 et seq. of the EC Treaty — Tax on the commercial value of immoveable property situated in France — Compatibility with the Treaty of national legislation exempting from that tax legal persons having their effective centre of management in France or another Member State of the European Union, but making that exemption conditional, as regards legal persons having their effective centre of management in the territory of a non-Member State, on the existence of a convention on administrative assistance to combat tax evasion and avoidance concluded between France and that State or of a treaty containing a clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality — Refusal to exempt in respect of two companies established in the British Virgin Islands — Obligation for the joint and several debtors, legal persons established in France, to pay the tax
   
      Operative part of the judgment
   
   Article 64(1) TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that Article 63 TFEU is without prejudice to the application of national legislation in force on 31 December 1993 which exempts from the tax on the market value of immovable property located in the territory of a Member State of the European Union companies having their registered office in the territory of that State and makes entitlement to that exemption, for a company whose registered office is in an overseas country or territory, conditional either on the existence of a convention on administrative assistance to combat tax evasion and avoidance concluded between that Member State and that territory or on there being a requirement, under a treaty containing a clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality, that those legal persons are not to be taxed more heavily than companies established in the territory of that Member State.
   
      (1)  OJ C 312, 19.12.2009.