natgillin/translations-raw huggingface dataset:
I lyset af konstateringerne i betragtning 341-345 mener Kommissionen, at Luxembourg først skal tilbagesøge den ulovlige støtte tildelt gennem den anfægtede skatteafgørelse og uforenelig med det indre marked, hos FFT.
COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID
Hvis FFT ikke er i stand til at tilbagesøge hele beløbet tildelt gennem den anfægtede skatteafgørelse, skal Luxembourg tilbagesøge det resterende støttebeløb hos Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., efterfølgeren til Fiat S.p.A., da denne enhed kontrollerer Fiat-koncernen, for at genoprette den oprindelige konkurrencesituation på markedet.
State aid shall be deemed compatible with the internal market if it falls within any of the categories listed in Article 107(2) of the TFEU [195] and it may be deemed compatible with the international market if it found by the Commission to fall within any of the categories listed in Article 107(3) of the TFEU.
KONKLUSION
However, it is the Member State granting the aid which bears the burden of proving that State aid granted by it is compatible with the internal market pursuant to Articles 107(2) or 107(3) of the TFEU.
Kommissionen konstaterer, at Luxembourg gennem den anfægtede skatteafgørelse har tildelt ulovlig statsstøtte til FFT og Fiat-koncernen i strid med artikel 108, stk. 3, i TEUF, at denne støtte er uforenelig med det indre marked, og at Luxembourg i henhold til artikel 16 i forordning (EU) 2015/1589 således skal tilbagesøge støtten hos FFT og herefter hos Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., hvis FFT ikke betaler hele støttebeløbet —
Luxembourg has not invoked any of the grounds for a finding of compatibility in either of those provisions for the State aid it has granted to FFT and the Fiat group by way of the contested tax ruling.
VEDTAGET DENNE AFGØRELSE:
Moreover, as explained in recital 347, the contested tax ruling should be considered as granting operating aid to FFT and the Fiat group.
Artikel 1
As a general rule, such aid can normally not be considered compatible with the internal market under Article 107(3)(c) of the TFEU in that it does not facilitate the development of certain activities or of certain economic areas, nor are the tax incentives in question limited in time, digressive or proportionate to what is necessary to remedy to a specific economic handicap of the areas concerned.
Skatteafgørelsen truffet af Luxembourg den 3. september 2012 til fordel for Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd, som gør det muligt for selskabet at fastsætte sit beskatningsgrundlag i Luxembourg årligt i en periode på fem år, udgør støtte, jf. artikel 107, stk. 1, i TEUF, som er uforenelig med det indre marked og iværksat ulovligt af Luxembourg i strid med artikel 108, stk. 3, i TEUF.
Consequently, the State aid granted to FFT and the Fiat group by Luxembourg through the contested tax ruling is incompatible with the internal market.
Artikel 2
UNLAWFULNESS OF THE AID
Luxembourg er forpligtet til at tilbagesøge den i artikel 1 omhandlede uforenelige og ulovlige støtte hos Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd.
According to Article 108(3) of the TFEU, Member States are obliged to inform the Commission of any plan to grant aid (notification obligation) and they may not put into effect any proposed aid measures until the Commission has taken a final position decision on the aid in question (standstill obligation).
Ethvert beløb, som ikke kan tilbagesøges hos Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd efter den i stk. 1 omhandlede tilbagesøgning, tilbagesøges hos Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.
The Commission notes that Luxembourg did not notify the Commission of any plan to grant to contested tax ruling, nor did it respect the standstill obligation laid down in Article 108(3) of the TFEU.
Den støtte, der skal tilbagesøges, pålægges renter fra det tidspunkt, hvor den blev udbetalt til støttemodtageren, og indtil den er blevet tilbagebetalt.
Therefore, in accordance with Article 1(f) of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 [196], the contested tax ruling constitutes unlawful aid, put into effect in contravention of Article 108(3) of the TFEU.
Beløbet beregnes med renters rente i overensstemmelse med kapitel V i forordning (EF) nr. 794/2004.
RECOVERY
Artikel 3
Article 16(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 establishes an obligation on the Commission to order recovery of unlawful and incompatible aid.
Tilbagesøgningen af den i artikel 1 omhandlede støtte iværksættes omgående og effektivt.
That provision also provides that the Member State concerned shall take all necessary measures to recover unlawful aid that is found to be incompatible.
Luxembourg efterkommer denne afgørelse senest fire måneder efter meddelelsen deraf.
Article 16(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 establishes that the aid is to be recovered, including interest from the date on which the unlawful aid was at the disposal of the beneficiary until the date of its effective recovery.
Artikel 4
Commission Regulation (EC) No 794/2004 [197] elaborates the methods to be used for the calculation of recovery interest.
Senest to måneder efter meddelelsen af denne afgørelse sender Luxembourg Kommissionen oplysninger om den anvendte metode til beregning af det nøjagtige støttebeløb.
Finally, Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 states, that ‘recovery shall be effected without delay and in accordance with the procedures under the national law of the Member State concerned, provided that they allow for the immediate an effective execution of the Commission decision’.
Luxembourg holder løbende Kommissionen orienteret om de nationale foranstaltninger, der træffes for at efterkomme denne afgørelse, indtil den i artikel 1omhandlede støtte er fuldt ud tilbagebetalt.
Legitimate expectations and legal certainty
Luxembourg indsender på Kommissionens anmodning straks oplysninger om, hvilke foranstaltninger der allerede er truffet eller planlagt for at efterkomme afgørelsen.
Article 16(1) of Regulation 2015/1589 also provides that the Commission shall not require recovery of the aid if this would be contrary to a general principle of law.
Artikel 5
Luxembourg argues, first, that the principle of legitimate expectations mandates that the effects of any decision finding the existence of aid should not take effect until the end of the relevant tax ruling period, i.e. until the end of tax year 2016.
Denne afgørelse er rettet til Storhertugdømmet Luxembourg.
According to Luxembourg, both the Code of Conduct Group and the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices assured Luxembourg that its tax ruling practice based on the Circular is consistent with the OECD Code of Conduct and Guidelines.
Udfærdiget i Bruxelles, den 21. oktober 2015.
Luxembourg therefore submits that it was explicitly confirmed at the Council meeting of 27 May 2011 that, in view of the adoption of the Circular, Luxembourg's tax ruling practice should not be evaluated according to the Code of Conduct [198].
På Kommissionens vegne
According to established case-law, a Member State whose authorities have granted aid in breach of the procedural rules laid down in Article 108(3) of the TFEU may not plead the legitimate expectations of a recipient to justify a failure to comply with the obligation to take the steps necessary to implement a Commission decision instructing it to recover the aid.
Medlem af Kommissionen
If it were allowed to do so, Articles 107 and 108 of the TFEU would be deprived of all practical force, since national authorities would thus be able to rely on their own unlawful conduct to render decisions taken by the Commission under those provisions of the TFEU ineffective [199].
Med virkning fra 1. december 2009 er EF-traktatens artikel 87 og 88 blevet til henholdsvis artikel 107 og 108 i traktaten om Den Europæiske Unions funktionsmåde (»TEUF«).
Thus, it is not for the Member State concerned, but for the recipient undertaking, to invoke the existence of exceptional circumstances on the basis of which it had entertained legitimate expectations, leading it to decline to repay the unlawful aid [200].
De to sæt bestemmelser er i det væsentlige identiske.
Since FFT did not submit any argument to that effect in any of its observations submitted to the Commission, the Commission considers Luxembourg's reliance on legitimate expectations inadmissible for the purposes of the present Decision.
I denne afgørelse skal henvisninger til artikel 107 og 108 i TEUF efter omstændighederne forstås som henvisninger til EF-traktatens artikel 87 og 88.
In any event, for a claim of legitimate expectations to succeed, the expectation must arise from prior Commission action in the form of precise assurances [201].
Med TEUF er der også indført visse terminologiske ændringer, f.eks. er »Fællesskab« erstattet med »Union« og »fællesmarkedet« med »det indre marked«.
Luxembourg argues that an agreement in a Code of Conduct Group meeting that ‘there [is] no need for the [Luxembourg tax measure on companies engaged in intra-group financing activities] to be assessed against the criteria of the Code of Conduct’ constitutes such a precise assurance giving rise to legitimate expectations.
Det er TEUF-terminologien, der anvendes i denne afgørelse.
The Commission recalls that the Code of Conduct, adopted by the ECOFIN Council [202], is a non-legally binding instrument which aims at providing a forum of discussion for Member States on measures which have, or may have, a significant impact on the location of business within the Union.
EUT C 369 af 17.10.2014, s. 37.
The Code of Conduct and the State aid rules pursue different objectives: while the Code of Conduct aims at tackling harmful tax competition between Member States, the State aid rules seeks to address distortions of between competitors that result from favourable treatment, also in the form of tax reductions, by Member States to certain undertakings.
Reference HT.4020 — Afgørelsespraksis på skatteområdet.
Moreover, while the Code of Conduct group enjoys a certain margin of appreciation, the Commission has no discretion in determining whether a measure falls within the notion of State aid, since that notion is an objective one.
Statsstøttesag SA.37267 (2013/CP) — Afgørelsespraksis på skatteområdet — Luxembourg.
Thus, an agreement in the Code of Conduct Group meeting can neither bind nor restrict the Commission's actions in exercising its powers which are conferred on it by the TFEU in the field of State aid [203].
De luxembourgske myndigheder havde overstreget bestemte oplysninger, navnlig selskabernes og datterselskabernes navne.
The same is true for agreements reached in the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices.
Visse passager i denne tekst er blevet bortredigeret for ikke at videregive fortrolige oplysninger.
At its meeting on 6 December 2011, the OECD Forum ‘agreed that the following 10 regimes did not need to be examined further […] Luxembourg — Advance tax analysis for intra-group financing’.
Angives med prikker i kantede parenteser.
The OECD is not a Union institution, nor is the Union a member of that organisation [204].
Med hensyn til Kommissionens undersøgelse vedrørende FFT åbnede Kommissionen et nyt sagsnummer, og rykkerskrivelsen af 7. april 2014 og alle efterfølgende meddelelser er fremsendt under sagsnummer SA.38375 (2014/CP) — Luxembourg — Påstået støtte til FFT.
Its conclusions, which are non-binding, cannot bind the Union institutions.
Rådets forordning (EF) nr. 659/1999 af 22. marts 1999 om fastlæggelse af regler for anvendelsen af artikel 108 i traktaten om Den Europæiske Unions funktionsmåde (EFT L 83 af 27.3.1999, s. 1).
Moreover, far from giving a precise assurance, the OECD Forum refrained from further examining the Luxembourg tax analysis for intra-group financing.
Alle henvisninger til forordning (EF) nr. 659/1999 betragtes som henvisninger til forordning (EU) 2015/1589 og læses i overensstemmelse med sammenligningstabellen i bilag II til sidstnævnte forordning.
It is therefore impossible to draw any kind of conclusions or inferences from this statement as regards the application of the State aid rules to the contested tax ruling.
Se fodnote 2.
Second, Luxembourg argues that the Commission infringed the principle of legal certainty.
Se betragtning 16.
It refers to previous decision-making practice where the Commission accepted to limit recovery based on that principle.
Statsstøttesag SA.37267 — Afgørelsespraksis på skatteområdet — Luxembourg.
However, there is no previous decision-making practice that might have created uncertainty about the fact that tax rulings could lead to the granting of State aid.
Brevet af 24. marts 2015 blev fremsendt til Kommissionen den 24. marts 2014 og herefter på ny den 26. marts 2015.
Indeed, in the decision referred to by Luxembourg, the Commission limited recovery because of uncertainty created by a previous Commission decision.
Se årsberetning for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for regnskabsåret 2014.
In the present case, to the contrary, the Notice on Direct Business Taxation makes express reference to tax rulings and the circumstances according to which they could be considered to lead to the granting of State aid.
I denne afgørelse kan henvisninger til Fiat S.p.A. læses som henvisninger til Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. og omvendt.
As regards the argument of Luxembourg that the aid amount cannot be quantified with precision, due amongst others to the novelty of the approach, and recovery should therefore be excluded, the Commission notes that it has applied the arm's length principle in its past decision-making practice, in particular with respect to measures adopted by Luxembourg, and it concluded that a violation thereof could constitute State aid [205].
I rapporten om koncerninterne afregningspriser henvises undertiden til FFT og undertiden til »FF&T« som betegnelse for samme enhed.
That conclusion has further been confirmed by the Court of Justice [206].
Rapporten om koncerninterne afregningspriser indeholder ikke en begrundelse for denne erklæring.
There is therefore nothing novel in the Commission's approach to the contested tax ruling.
Den anfægtede skatteafgørelse ophæves imidlertid, hvis de kendsgerninger eller omstændigheder, der beskrives i anmodningen, er ufuldstændige eller unøjagtige, hvis centrale elementer i de faktiske transaktioner afviger fra beskrivelsen i anmodningen om oplysninger, eller hvis forhåndsaftalen om koncerninterne afregningspriser ikke længere er i overensstemmelse med national eller international ret.
Member States should be aware that an agreement between a tax authority and a company that leads to a favourable treatment for the company in terms of artificially lowering its tax base, because the transfer prices it employs do not give a reliable approximation of a market-based outcome, lead to a violation of the State aid rules and should, in case of doubt, be notified to the Commission.
I betragtning 44-46 i indledningsafgørelsen redegøres nærmere for de begrundelser, som skatterådgiveren har fremført for at vælge TNMM til at fastsætte FFT's skattepligtige fortjeneste.
Finally, as regards the allegedly difficulty to quantify the aid amount and therefore not order recovery, the Court has previously held [207] that the Commission is not required to state the exact amount of the aid to be recovered.
Se betragtning 51.
Union law merely requires recovery of unlawful aid to restore the position to the status quo ante and that repayment be made in accordance with the rules of national law [208].
CAPM anvendes til at anslå det teoretiske afkastkrav til aktiverne, og nærmere bestemt til egenkapitalen.
Accordingly, the Commission may confine itself to declaring that there is an obligation to repay the aid at issue and leave it to the national authorities to calculate the exact amount of aid to be repaid [209].
CAPM beskrives nærmere i betragtning 39-42 i indledningsafgørelsen.
It can therefore be concluded that the arguments of legitimate expectations and legal certainty invoked by Luxembourg are without merit for the purposes of recovery of the aid unlawfully granted to FFT by way of the contested tax ruling.
Baselkomitéen for Banktilsyn, »International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: A Revised Framework«, juni 2004 (i det efterfølgende benævnt »Basel II-regelsættet«).
Methodology for recovery
Da FFT ikke er en reguleret enhed, er skatterådgiverens fortolkning af Basel II-regelsættets anvendelse i FFT's tilfælde med henblik på udstedelse af den anfægtede skatteafgørelse hverken blevet undersøgt eller valideret af en finansiel tilsynsmyndighed.
In accordance with the TFEU and the Court of Justice's established case-law, the Commission is competent to decide that the Member State concerned must abolish or alter aid when it has found that it is incompatible with the internal market.
Den »egenkapital, der anvendes til at udøve funktionerne« synes ikke at svare til nogen specifik lovbestemt kategori af egenkapital.
The Court has also consistently held that the obligation on a State to abolish aid regarded by the Commission as being incompatible with the internal market is designed to re-establish the previously existing situation.
Udtrykkene »risikoeksponeret egenkapital«, »minimumskapitalkrav«, »minimumskapitalkrav i henhold til Basel II«, »risikoeksponeret minimumskapital« og »minimumskapital« anvendes vilkårligt i hele rapporten om koncerninterne afregningspriser, men henviser til samme begreb, dvs. til FFT's hypotetiske lovbestemte egenkapital som anslået af skatterådgiveren ved analog anvendelse af Basel II-regelsættet.
In this context, the Court has stated that that objective is attained once the recipient has repaid the amounts granted by way of unlawful aid, thus forfeiting the advantage which it had enjoyed over its competitors on the market, and the situation prior to the payment of the aid is restored.
FFT's egenkapital er blevet reduceret med værdien af kapitalandelene i FFNA og FFC, der forrentes ved tildeling af udbytte.
In relation to unlawful State aid in the form of tax measures, the Notice on business taxation [210] provides in point 35 thereof that the amount to be recovered should be calculated on the basis of a comparison between the tax actually paid and the amount which should have been paid if the generally applicable rule had been applied.
»Egenkapital til dækning af udøvede funktioner« er en anden betegnelse anvendt af skatterådgiveren for den »egenkapital, der anvendes til at udøve funktionerne«, et udtryk, som skatterådgiveren anvender i rapporten.
In order to arrive at an amount of tax which should have been paid if the generally applicable rules would have been complied with, that is, if arm's length principle had been properly applied for the determination of FFT's tax base in Luxembourg, the Luxembourg tax administration must change the annual calculation method employed by FFT in the context the TNMM method on the basis of the CAPM, i.e. (i) the amount of capital remunerated; and (ii) the level of remuneration applied to this capital amount need, in line with the above assessment, presented in recital 311.
Skatterådgiveren har anvendt 25-percentilen af betaværdierne i CAPM-modellen, da han skønnede, at FFT's risici var begrænsede.
No provision of Union law requires the Commission, when ordering the recovery of aid declared incompatible with the internal market, to quantify the exact amount of the aid to be recovered.
Data indsamlet af professor A. Damodaran, tilgængelige på adressen: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/.
Rather, it is sufficient for the Commission's decision to include information enabling the addressee of the decision to work out that amount itself without overmuch difficulty [211].
Årligt gennemsnit 2011, Eonia-indekset (Euro OverNight Index Average).
The Commission has proposed one possible methodology in Section 7.2.2.10 and, in particular, in recital 311 for eliminating the selective advantage granted to FFT by the contested tax ruling [212], if Luxembourg retains the TNMM to determine FFT's tax base.
Ved »koncernfinansieringsselskab« forstås enhver enhed, der primært foretager koncerninterne finansieringstransaktioner bortset fra besiddelse af kapitalandele (cirkulære, s. 1).
Moreover, regarding the estimated arm's length remuneration on that capital, while the use of the CAPM methodology seems unnecessary cumbersome, there appears to be no reason why it could not be used for transfer pricing purposes, unless it is employed to clearly deviate from a market-based outcome, which is reflected in an observable return on equity for peers.
Ved »koncernintern finansieringstransaktion« forstås enhver aktivitet i form af tildeling af lån til forbundne selskaber refinansieret ved finansielle midler og instrumenter som f.eks. offentlige emissioner, private lån eller banklån.
Entity from which the aid is to be recovered
To selskaber er »forbundne selskaber«, hvis et af selskaberne direkte eller indirekte deltager i det andet selskabs ledelse eller kapital eller kontrollerer selskabet, eller hvis de samme personer direkte eller indirekte deltager i de to selskabers ledelse eller kapital eller kontrollerer de to selskaber (cirkulære, s. 1).
In light of the observations in recitals 341 to 345, the Commission considers that Luxembourg should, in the first place, recover the unlawful and incompatible aid granted by the contested tax ruling from FFT.
Cirkulære, s. 2.
Should FFT not be in a position to repay the full amount of the aid received as a result of the contested tax ruling, Luxembourg should recover the remaining amount of that aid from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the successor of Fiat SpA, since it is that entity which controls the Fiat group, so as to ensure that the previously existing competitive situation on the market is restored through recovery.
Se forenede sager C-182/03 og C-217/03, Belgien og Forum 187 ASBL mod Kommissionen, ECLI:EU:C:2006:416.
CONCLUSION
Cirkulære, s. 4.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Cirkulære, s. 7.
Article 1
Cirkulære, s. 5-8.
The tax ruling issued by Luxembourg on 3 September 2012 in favour of Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd., which enables the latter to determine its tax liability in Luxembourg on a yearly basis for a period of 5 years, constitutes aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) of the TFEU that is incompatible with the internal market and that was unlawfully put into effect by Luxembourg in breach of Article 108(3) of the TFEU.
Skattemyndighederne i OECD-landene opfordres til at følge disse retningslinjer.
Article 2
Skattemyndigheder og lovgivere er klar over problemet, og skattelovgivningen gør det generelt muligt for skattemyndighederne at rette selvangivelserne for de forbundne virksomheder, som ikke anvender interne afregningspriser korrekt, gennem substitution af disse priser med priser svarende til en pålidelig tilnærmelse til de priser, der accepteres af uafhængige selskaber, der forhandler under sammenlignelige omstændigheder og på armslængdevilkår.
Luxembourg shall recover the incompatible and unlawful aid referred to in Article 1 from Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd.
OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational enterprises and Tax administration, OECD, juli 1995.
Any sums that remain unrecoverable from Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd., following the recovery described in the paragraph 1, shall be recovered from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV
OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational enterprises and Tax administration, OECD, 22. juli 2010.
The sums to be recovered shall bear interest from the date on which they were put at the disposal of the beneficiaries until their actual recovery.
Europa-Parlamentets og Rådets direktiv 2006/48/EF af 14. juni 2006 om adgang til at optage og udøve virksomhed som kreditinstitut (EUT L 177 af 30.6.2006, s. 1).
The interest shall be calculated on a compound basis in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 794/2004.
Se betragtning 51 i indledningsafgørelsen vedrørende finansielle oplysninger for FFT for perioden 2009-2011 fremlagt i rapporten om koncerninterne afregningspriser.
Luxembourg shall ensure that this Decision is implemented within four months following the date of notification of this Decision.
I tabel 8 henvises til den anvendte terminologi i årsberetningen og i oplysningerne fremsendt af Fiat den 31. marts 2015, og denne terminologi er ikke altid helt identisk med den terminologi, som skatterådgiveren anvender i rapporten om koncerninterne afregningspriser.
Article 4