- Administrative Decision ET 125.180 of 20 November 2014.
- Decision TVA no ET 125.180/2 of 12 December 2014.
- Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (2006) OJ L 347/1.
- Report on behalf of the Commission of the Parliament by Mr Baeskens, Pasinomie 1969, 932. Administrative Circular n° 103 dd 31.12.1970 n° 78; Décision n° ET 14699 (22.06.1973).
- The civil servants who wrote this decision had not considered the fundamental principles contained in the Belgian Constitution ie that a tax can only be established by an elected assembly (articles 170 and 171 of the Belgian Constitution) and a tax exemption can only be granted by law (article 173 of the Belgian Constitution). Of course, business never complained of such tax exemption.
- Decision no ET 79.581 of 27 January 1994.
- Decision no ET 118.288 of April 2010.
- If it would have been a ‘reasoned opinion’ which is the first step of an infringement procedure, such opinion would have been made public by the European Commission and this is not the case in the present situation.
- Jacques Malherbe, Philippe Lambrecht, Philippe Malherbe, Droit des Sociétés Précis (Bruylant, 2004), 534; Répertoire Pratique du Droit Belge, V° Sociétés Anonymes.
- ‘Study on Directors' Duties and Liability’ prepared for the European Commission DG Markt by: Carsten Gerner-Beuerle, Philipp Paech and Edmund Philipp Schuster (Department of Law, London School of Economics, 2013).
- Administrative Decision ET 125.180 of 20 November 2014.
- Case C-202/90 Ayuntamiento de Sevilla ECLI:EU:C:1991:332.
- Case C-355/06, van der Steen ECLI:EU:C:2007:615, [2007] ECR I-8863.
- Case C-60/90 Polysar ECLI:EU:C:1991:268, [1991] ECR I-3111.
- Case C-142/99 Floridienne Berginvest ECLI:EU:C:2000:623.
- Yves Bernaerts, Les holdings á l'épreuve de la TVA (Bruylant, 2001), p 55.
- Case C-202/90 Ayuntamiento de Sevilla (n 12) para 14.
- Derouin Philippe, La Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée dans la Communauté économique Européenne (Editions Jupiter et de Navarre, 1977), p 100.
- Cour Administrative d'Appel de Nantes, 16 décembre 1997, N° 95NT00382.
- Jurisclasseur Fiscal Chiffre d'affaires—Champ d'application—Fasc 2006–10, nr 94.
- Case C-453/93 Bulthuis-Griffioen ECLI:EU:C:1995:265, [1995] ECR I-2341.
- ibid.
- Case C-216/97 Gregg and Gregg ECLI:EU:C:1999:390, [1999] ECR I-4947. In the Case C-366/12 Klinikum Dortmund ECLI:EU:C:2014:143, the CJEU seems to revert again this interpretation by referring to Case C-44/11 Deutsche-Bank. A rough summary of the Court's view is as follows: ‘if you—advisers or businesses—consider that there is a discrimination between VAT exempt and taxable operations, We, the Court, are obliged to say that both are taxable’. This is the way the Court replies to those who argue that neutrality of the VAT is not only VAT deduction, but a particular application of Treaty provisions (ie The Primary Law) prohibiting discriminations, and therefore supersedes a Directive provision (see the study: Christian Amand, ‘VAT neutrality: a principle of EU law or a principle of the VAT system’ (2013) 2 World Journal of VAT/GST Law 163). This is a serious warning since the advisers know that most of their clients are generally in favour of VAT exemptions, because of short term advantages.
- Christian Amand, ‘When is a link Direct?’ (1996) International VAT Monitor 3.
- Yves Bernaerts, Les holdings à l'épreuve de la TVA (Bruylant, 2001), 41. Actually, Bernaerts disagree with the method of remuneration of directors foreseen by the Belgian Company law and he considers that the French company law is more rational.
- Case C-60/90 Polysar (n 14).
- Case C-16/00 Cibo Participations ECLI:EU:C:2001:495 [2001] ECR I-6663.
- On 29 September 2011, the European Commission had formally requested The Netherlands to modify its rules on the treatment of members of supervisory boards for VAT purposes so as to make the rules comply with EU legislation. In the absence of a satisfactory response within two months, the Commission threatened to refer the Netherlands to the EU's Court of Justice. Under Dutch rules, individuals did not have to register for VAT, pay VAT on the compensation they received, or file VAT returns, if they held no more than four positions as a member of supervisory boards. The Commission considered that the activity of serving as a member of even one supervisory board must be considered as an economic activity subject to VAT. In practice, the Dutch rules amount to an exemption of VAT for services that should be taxed according to the VAT Directive. The procedure was ended on 20 November 2013 because the Netherlands agreed to amend their legislation. Unfortunately, the European Commission refused to communicate its reasoning, even by the way of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to documents. The new Belgian administrative interpretation adopted under the fear of an infringement procedure by the European Commission may have as consequence that the physical person will tax his services in the Netherlands while a similar activity will be out of the scope in Belgium.
- Administrative Circular 50/2013 of 29 November 2013. The tax authorities and the business are struggling for more than 20 years to adopt a coherent position, but the only result has been massive claims against the Belgian State and the financial destabilisation of many educational institutions.
- Decision no ET 126.564 dd 18.07.2014 nos 73 and following.
World Journal of VAT/GST Law
Volume 3, 2014 - Issue 3