EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 244/21

(Case C-279/22)

(2022/C 244/27)

Language of the case: Hungarian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: CH

Defendant: Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal Fellebbviteli Igazgatósága

Questions referred

1.Is Article 2 of Directive 2013/34/EU (1) to be interpreted as meaning that that provision does not cover taxable persons who are private individuals, but instead applies only to commercial companies and other types of undertaking listed in Annexes I and II to that directive?

2.If the answer is in the affirmative, does this mean that in the present case, the provisions of Directive 2013/34/EC which lay down obligations are consequently not applicable to private individuals, that is to say, that the obligations imposed on undertakings covered by that directive are not enforceable against taxable persons who are private individuals and cannot be used against them when examining their tax obligations?

3.If the preceding question is answered in the affirmative, is an action of the tax authority of a Member State, which consists in determining a tax difference owed by a taxable person who is a private individual, on the basis of the provisions referred to in the Law on Accounting, solely because the taxable person has not been able to make available to the tax authority all of the accounting documents of a commercial company which is independent of the taxable person, in order to prove that he or she has, in the interests of that company, used, in his or her capacity as employer, the cash amounts which he or she has handled in the course of his or her work in accordance with instructions or orders and, consequently, the tax authority relies on the absence of certain documents which the taxable person was unlikely to have or could not have had for objective reasons, where those documents are publicly accessible as a result of the obligation of companies to publish their annual financial statements, in conformity with the basic accounting principles and with the objective and function of the publication requirement laid down in Articles 4, 30 and 33 of Directive 2013/34/EU as well as the right to a fair trial enshrined as a principle of law in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and with the fundamental principles of legal certainty and proportionality?

4.Are the provisions of Directive 2013/34/EC — in particular the recitals and Articles 4, 6, 30 and 33 thereof — to be interpreted as meaning that fulfilment of the obligations laid down in those articles gives rise to a legal presumption that the information in the annual financial statements complies with basic accounting principles, in particular the principle of accuracy and the principle of justification?

5.Is an action whereby the tax authority, without rebutting the legal presumption linked to compliance with the provisions of Directive 2013/34/EU and without examining the content of the tax return, does not accept the annual financial statements published by the company as evidence of the information contained in that tax return, stating that those financial statements are in themselves insufficient to provide reliable proof of any such information, in particular that the taxable person repaid to the commercial company the amounts which he or she had taken, but rather that the company’s entire accounting records are required for that purpose, in conformity with Articles 4, 6, 30 and 33 of Directive 2013/34/EU, as well as the right to a fair trial enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter and the principle of legal certainty?

(1) Directive 2013/34.EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (OJ 2013 L 182, p. 19).