18.5.2013

Official Journal of the European Union

C 141/7

(Case C-527/11) (<span class="super">1</span>)

(VAT - Directive 2006/112/EC - Articles 213, 214 and 273 - Identification of taxable persons subject to VAT - Refusal to assign a VAT identification number on the ground that the taxable person is not in possession of the material, technical and financial resources to carry out the declared economic activity - Legality - Countering tax evasion - Principle of proportionality)

2013/C 141/10

Language of the case: Latvian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Valsts ieņēmumu dienests

Defendant: Ablessio SIA

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Augstākās tiesas Senāts — Interpretation of Article 214 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (OJ 2006 L 347, p. 1), read in conjunction with Article 273 of that directive — National legislation providing the possibility to refuse registration on the register of taxable persons identified for VAT purposes if the taxable person does not provide information or provides false information concerning his material, technical and financial capacity to carry out the declared economic activity — Refusal to register a company on the register of taxable persons identified for VAT purposes on the ground that it is not able to carry out the declared economic activity.

Operative part of the judgment

Articles 213, 214 and 273 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax must be interpreted as meaning that the tax authority of a Member State may not refuse to assign a value added tax identification number to a company solely on the ground that, in the opinion of that authority, the company does not have at its disposal the material, technical and financial resources to carry out the economic activity declared, and that the owner of the shares in that company has already obtained, on various occasions, such an identification number for companies which never carried out any real economic activity, and the shares of which were transferred immediately after obtaining the individual number, where the tax authority concerned has not established, on the basis of objective factors, that there is sound evidence leading to the suspicion that the value added tax identification number assigned will be used fraudulently. It is for the referring court to assess whether that tax authority provided serious evidence of the existence of a risk of tax evasion in the case in the main proceedings.

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Language of the case: Latvian.

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(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ C 6, 7.1.2012.