Official Journal of the European Union

C series

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C/2025/133

(Case C-613/23, (1) Herdijk) (Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common system of value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 273 - VAT payable by a taxable entity - National legislation providing for the joint and several liability of the director of the entity - Presumption of liability in respect of the director in the absence of notification that the entity is unable to pay the VAT due - Principle of proportionality)

(C/2025/133)

Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: KL

Defendant: Staatssecretaris van Financiën

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 273 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, read in the light of the principle of proportionality, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation under which a director of an entity which has not complied with the obligation to notify its inability to pay a value added tax debt must, in order to be relieved of his or her joint and several liability for the payment of that debt, demonstrate that the failure to comply with that notification obligation is not attributable to him or her, in so far as the legislation in question does not limit the possibility of demonstrating that circumstance solely to cases of force majeure, but allows the director to raise any circumstance capable of showing that he or she is not responsible for the failure to comply with that notification obligation.

2.Article 273 of Directive 2006/112, read in the light of the principle of proportionality, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which has the effect that the director of an entity which has failed to notify the latter’s inability to pay remains jointly and severally liable for the payment of a value added tax debt relating to a particular period, whereas he or she has been released from a debt on the same basis related to an immediately following period after being able to demonstrate that he or she acted in good faith and exhibited, during the previous three years, all the due diligence required of a circumspect trader in order to prevent the entity from being unable to honour its obligations and his or her participation in abuse or fraud is excluded.

(1) OJ C C/2024/709.

(2) The name of the present case is a fictitious name. It does not correspond to the real name of any of the parties to the proceedings.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/133/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)

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Language of the case: Dutch