25.6.2011

Official Journal of the European Union

C 186/4

(Case C-384/09)(Direct taxation - Free movement of capital - Article 64 TFEU - Legal persons established in a non-Member State - Ownership of immovable property located in a Member State - Tax on the market value of that property - Refusal of exemption - Assessment with regard to overseas countries and territories - Combating tax evasion - Joint and several liability)

2011/C 186/07

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Prunus SARL, Polonium SA

Defendant: Directeur des services fiscaux

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Tribunal de grande instance (Paris) — Interpretation of Article 56 et seq. of the EC Treaty — Tax on the commercial value of immoveable property situated in France — Compatibility with the Treaty of national legislation exempting from that tax legal persons having their effective centre of management in France or another Member State of the European Union, but making that exemption conditional, as regards legal persons having their effective centre of management in the territory of a non-Member State, on the existence of a convention on administrative assistance to combat tax evasion and avoidance concluded between France and that State or of a treaty containing a clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality — Refusal to exempt in respect of two companies established in the British Virgin Islands — Obligation for the joint and several debtors, legal persons established in France, to pay the tax

Operative part of the judgment

Article 64(1) TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that Article 63 TFEU is without prejudice to the application of national legislation in force on 31 December 1993 which exempts from the tax on the market value of immovable property located in the territory of a Member State of the European Union companies having their registered office in the territory of that State and makes entitlement to that exemption, for a company whose registered office is in an overseas country or territory, conditional either on the existence of a convention on administrative assistance to combat tax evasion and avoidance concluded between that Member State and that territory or on there being a requirement, under a treaty containing a clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality, that those legal persons are not to be taxed more heavily than companies established in the territory of that Member State.

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Language of the case: French.