Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark v Finanzamt Brandenburg.
Date: 2016-09-15
21


On the other hand, where goods are supplied which the taxable person intends to use both for economic activities subject to VAT and for private purposes ‘other than those of his business’, within the meaning of Article 6(2)(a) of the Sixth Directive, the taxable person may treat all those goods as assets forming part of his business and, on that basis, be entitled to deduct the whole of the input VAT. He must, however, pay the VAT on the non-business use of the goods, as is apparent, inter alia, from the judgement of 23 April 2009, Puffer (Case C‑460/07, EU:C:2009:254, paragraph 39).
30


By contrast, non-economic activities do not fall within the scope of the Sixth Directive (judgments of 13 March 2008, Securenta, C‑437/06, EU:C:2008:166, paragraphs 30 and 31, and of 12 February 2009, Vereniging Noordelijke Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie, C‑515/07, EU:C:2009:88, paragraphs 36 and 37).
31


It follows that Article 6(2)(a) of the Sixth Directive is not intended to establish a rule that transactions that fall outside the scope of the system of VAT may be considered to be carried out for ‘purposes other than those of [a taxable person’s] business’ within the meaning of that provision. Such an interpretation would have the effect of rendering Article 2(1) of the Sixth Directive meaningless (judgment of 12 February 2009, Vereniging Noordelijke Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie, C‑515/07, EU:C:2009:88, paragraph 38).
33


It is settled case-law that, where capital goods are used both for business and for private purposes, the taxpayer has the choice, for the purposes of VAT, of (i) allocating those goods wholly to the assets of his business, (ii) retaining them wholly within his private assets, thereby excluding them entirely from the system of VAT, or (iii) integrating them into his business only to the extent to which they are actually used for business purposes (judgment of 23 April 2009, Puffer, C‑460/07, EU:C:2009:254, paragraph 39 and the case-law cited).
34


By contrast, there is no such freedom of choice when considering whether or not goods are used for economic activities. Where a business uses goods both for economic and non-economic activities, Article 17(2)(a) of the Sixth Directive merely provides a right to deduct input tax. The measures which the Member States are required to adopt in that regard must comply with the principle of fiscal neutrality on which the common system of VAT is based (judgement of 13 March 2008, Securenta, C‑437/06, EU:C:2008:166, paragraph 36).
35


In accordance with the principle of fiscal neutrality, the deduction system is meant to relieve the trader entirely of the burden of the VAT payable or paid in the course of all his economic activities (judgment of 12 February 2009, Vereniging Noordelijke Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie, C‑515/07, EU:C:2009:88, paragraph 27).
37


The above considerations are fully transposable to the interpretation of the term ‘non-business purposes’ in Article 1 of the Authorising Decision. Given the requirements of unity and consistency in the EU legal order, the terms used by the measures adopted in the same sector must be given the same meaning, unless the EU legislature has expressed a different intention (see, to that effect, judgments of 4 October 2011, Football Association Premier League and Others, C‑403/08 and C‑429/08, EU:C:2011:631, paragraph 188, and of 31 May 2016, Reha Training, C‑117/15, EU:C:2016:379, paragraph 28). That is not the position in this case.
38


Lastly, as to the argument that the term ‘non-business purposes’ was understood differently in the period prior to the judgment of 12 February 2009, Vereniging Noordelijke Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie (C‑515/07, EU:C:2009:88), so that the Authorising Decision, which was adopted on 19 November 2004, might still distinguish between economic and non-economic activities, it must be recalled that the interpretation which the Court of Justice gives to a provision of EU law has retroactive effect and, therefore, it is valid from the time the interpreted provision took effect (judgment of 27 March 1980, Denkavit italiana, 61/79, EU:C:1980:100, paragraph 16).