13 February 2017 1. GDF Suez – Luxembourg: Fiscal State Aid Until 3 March, the European Commission will be receiving comments on the fiscal state aid alleged to have been provided by Luxembourg to GDF Suez (Case No. SA 44888/2016). In this case, the Commission is challenging 2 tax rulings issued by the Luxembourgish tax […]

The CFE ECJ task-force has published Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 1/2017 regarding the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) on 24 November 2016 in Case C-464/14, SECIL, concerning the free movement of capital and third countries. In a clear and instructive judgment, the Court not only clarified the scope and impact […]

06 February 2017   1.       Maltese Presidency – tax policy priorities The Maltese Presidency presented its work programme, including its tax priorities for the coming 6 months at the recent ECOFIN meeting that took place in Brussels on 27 January 2017. Malta will hold the Presidency until June 2017. The priorities are as follows: Reaching […]

  23 January 2017   Temporary general reverse charge in VAT on the EU agenda EU finance ministers are expected to discuss on Friday 27 January the December 2016 proposal from the European Commission to amend the VAT Directive with a temporary generalised reverse charge mechanism for all domestic supplies above an invoice threshold of […]

16 January 2017   AG Wathelet issues opinion in C-682/15 Berlioz, supports questioning ‘foreseeable relevance’ of tax authorities’ information exchange requests The case C-682/15 Berlioz Investment Fund S.A., lodged on 19 December 2015, concerns the application of EU law in relation to administrative penalties for holders of information questioning the foreseeable relevance of information to […]

10 January 2017   European Commission published the opening decision in the case of potential state aid by Luxembourg to GDF Suez (Engie) Continuing its inquiries into tax rulings practices by EU member states the European Commission opened on 19 September 2016 an investigation into the Luxembourg tax treatment of the GDF Suez group (now […]

European Commission refers France to the Court of Justice for discriminatory taxation on dividends   European Commission has referred France to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure to comply with the judgment C-310/09 Accor of 15 September 2011. The infringement action against France was initiated following a reasoned opinion sent on […]

1. European Commission proposes modernising VAT rules to support e-commerce and online business in the EU On 1 December 2016 the European Commission published a series of measures aimed at improving the operation of VAT rules for online business in the EU. It is hoped that the new rules will simplify VAT Compliance, particularly for […]