Sveda—The increasing obscurity of the direct link test in EU VAT

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Notes

1 Case C-4/94 BLP Group.

2 Opinion in Sveda, para 31.

3 Opinion in Sveda, para 34.

4 Opinion in Sveda, para 42.

5 Opinion in Sveda, para 43.

6 Opinion in Sveda, para 44, with a reference to Case C-412/03 Hotel Scandic Gåsabäck.

7 Opinion in Sveda, para 45.

8 Opinion in Sveda, para 46.

9 Opinion in Sveda, para 48.

10 Opinion in Sveda, para 49 and Case C-234/11 TETS Haskovo.

11 Opinion in Sveda, para 50 with reference to, inter alia, SKF.

12 Opinion in Sveda, para 52.

13 Sveda, para 23.

14 Sveda, para 25.

15 Sveda, para 26.

16 Sveda, para 28.

17 Sveda, para 29.

18 Sveda, para 30.

19 Sveda, para 32.

20 Sveda, para 33.

21 Sveda, para 34.

22 Opinion in Sveda, para 60.

23 Opinion in Sveda, para 61.

24 Sveda, para 36.

25 Sveda, para 36.

26 Case C-98/98 Midland Bank.

27 Case C-104/12 Wolfram Becker.

28 Case C-124/12 AES-3C Maritza East.

29 AES, para 31.

30 Case C-26/12 PPG Holdings.

31 PPG Holdings, para 26.

32 Ramsdahl Jensen and Stensgaard, ‘The Distinction between Direct and General Costs with Regard to the Deduction of Input VAT—The Case of Acquisition, Holding and Sale of Shares', (2012) World Tax Journal 3–33.

33 BLP, paras 3 and 12.

34 BLP, para 19 and the dictum.

35 Opinion in Sveda, para 53.

36 See, for example, Case C-291/92 Armbrecht and Charles and Charles-Tijmens, with the explicitly regulated exception for the situations covered by Article 168a of the VAT Directive.

37 As provided for in Article 26(1)(a) of the VAT Directive.

38 Collective consumption is not taxed in EU VAT, something I have discussed in Henkow, The VAT/GST Treatment of Public Bodies (Kluwer Law International, 2012).

39 B Terra and J Kajus, ‘News, Recent Decisions and Opinions, Case C-126/14 (Sveda)’, A Guide to the European VAT Directives [Online] Amsterdam IBFD. Available from http://online.2.ibfd.org/evd/ accessed 16 November 2015.

40 For example, Case C-110/94 INZO and Case C-396/98 Slossstrasse.

41 Case C-243/03 Commission v France.

42 Ibid, para 33.

43 See in particular Cases C-437/06 Securenta and Case C-435/05 Investrand.

44 In Case C-72/05 Wollny the Court confirmed its case law allowing a full right to deduct and the taxation of self-supplies when goods are acquired partly for private and partly for business use. The Directive was changed and Article 168a introduced, which limits the principle established by the Court in the case of acquisitions of immovable property and to the discretion of the Member State also other capital goods.

45 AG Kokott discussed whether the contribution of 90% of the building costs of the path from the local authority constituted consideration for supplies and should therefore be taxed. The Court did not deal with this issue (and it was not raised by the national court).