Official Journal of the European Union

C 138/8

(Case C-712/19) (*)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Freedom of establishment - Free movement of capital - Taxation - Tax on customer deposits held by credit institutions - Tax deductions granted only to establishments with registered offices or branches in the territory of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia - Tax deductions granted only for investments in projects carried out in that autonomous community - Common system of value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 401 - Prohibition on the levying of other domestic taxes which can be characterised as turnover taxes - Concept of ‘turnover tax’ - Essential characteristics of VAT - None)

(2021/C 138/10)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Novo Banco SA

Defendant: Junta de Andalucía

Operative part of the judgment

1.The freedom of establishment enshrined in Article 49 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that, in the case of deductions applied to the gross amount of a tax on deposits made by customers of credit institutions which have their head office or branches in the territory of a region of a Member State,

—it precludes a deduction of EUR 200 000 from the gross amount of that tax in favour of credit institutions which have their head office in the territory of that region;

—it does not preclude deductions from the gross amount of that tax of EUR 5 000 per branch established in the territory of that region, the latter amount being increased to EUR 7 500 for any branch situated in a municipality with fewer than 2 000 inhabitants, unless those deductions de facto entail an unjustified discrimination based on the location of the registered office of the credit institutions concerned, which it is for the national court to determine.

Article 63(1) TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that, in the case of a tax on deposits made by customers of credit institutions which have their head office or branches in the territory of a region of a Member State, it precludes deductions from the gross amount of that tax equal to credits, loans and investments intended for projects carried out in that region, provided that those deductions pursue an objective of a purely economic nature.

2.Article 401 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation introducing a tax payable by credit institutions in respect of the holding of customer deposits, the taxable amount of which corresponds to the arithmetical average of the quarterly balance of those deposits and which cannot be passed on by the taxpayer to third parties.

(*)

OJ C 423, 16.12.2019.