Official Journal of the European Union

C 294/7

(Case C-144/14) (<span class="super">1</span>)

((Reference for a preliminary ruling - Value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Articles 273 and 287 - Obligation to register a taxable person for VAT purposes - Whether veterinary services are taxable - Principle of legal certainty - Principle of protection of legitimate expectations))

(2015/C 294/09)

Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Cabinet Medical Veterinar Dr. Tomoiagă Andrei

Defendant: Direcția Generală Regională a Finanțelor Publice Cluj Napoca prin Administrația Județeană a Finanțelor Publice Maramureș

Operative part of the judgment

1.The first paragraph of Article 273 of Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as amended by Council Directive 2009/162/EU of 22 December 2009, does not require Member States to register of their own motion a taxable person for the purposes of collecting value added tax solely on the basis of tax returns, other than those relating to value added tax, where those returns would have made it possible to establish that the taxable person had exceeded the exemption threshold for value added tax.

2.The principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations do not preclude a tax authority from deciding that veterinary services are subject to value added tax in circumstances such as those in the main proceedings, provided that that decision is based on clear rules and the practice of that authority was not such as to create in the mind of a reasonably prudent economic operator a reasonable expectation that value added tax would not be applied to those services, that being a matter for the referring court to establish.

(<span class="note">1</span>) OJ C 212, 7.7.2014.