This blog post was first published on the Kluwer Competition Law Blog. On September 10, 2024, the European Court of Justice (ECJ or Court) sided with the European Commission (Commission) and ruled that two Irish subsidiaries of Apple Inc. received unlawful state aid from Ireland in the form of a tax advantage (Case C-465/20…
Claudia Dias Soares[1] Key concepts: carbon accounting, capture, storage and removal, ‘Fit for 55 in 2030 package’, fiscal and monetary policy, social justice, environmental integrity Creative carbon accounting and techno-optimism On the 25th of April, the European Council adopted key pieces of legislation delivering on 2030 climate targets, following up on the legislative procedure to…
The VAT treatment of the activities carried out by public entities has traditionally been a source of debate. Article 13 of the VAT Directive offers a short and limited regulation of the activities of public entities for VAT purposes. Generally speaking, the activities of public entities acting as such (that is to say: when using…
In a prior blog, the author highlighted some of the most frequent debates arising from VAT and the public bodies’ activities or, more generally, the activities subsidised by public bodies. One key point for establishing whether public bodies’ activities must be subject to VAT or not relates to the aim of preventing distortions of competition…
The legal framework of the activities carried out by public bodies The Value Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax paid by entities or individuals who, independently, carry out an economic activity, whatever the purpose or results of that activity. Although Council Directive 2006/112/EC (the VAT Directive) does not establish a definition of economic activity…
The Court of Cassation (the Italian Supreme Court), in recent judgment no. 14983 of 15 July 2020, has set forth the principle of law that, as regards excise duties, the omission of a formal compliance requirement (notably, sending a monthly declaration to the Italian Customs Agency) does not preclude the application of a subsidized tax…
In the aftermath of the surge in COVID-19 related government support to businesses and just days after UK Brexit negotiators announced not to extend the deadline for the ongoing negotiations with the European Union, the European Commission launched its “White Paper on levelling the playing field as regards foreign subsidies” on 17 June 2020. It…
