Staatssecretaris van Financiën v Schoenimport ‘Italmoda’ Mariano Previti vof; and Turbu.com

In Staatssecretaris van Financiën v Schoenimport ‘Italmoda’ Mariano Previti vof (C-131/13) and Turbu.com (C-163/13) (18 December 2014) the CJEU held that national tax authorities can deny the right to a deduction or an exemption where the taxpayer has engaged in fraudulent activities.

In both cases the taxpayers had been involved in some form of VAT fraud and had been denied the right to a deduction of or to an exemption from VAT as a result. They contended that this denial was contrary to EU law in circumstances where the national laws did not provide for such measures.

The case of Turbu.com was held to be inadmissible as evasion had not been established by the national court so that the question was ‘hypothetical’. Therefore the reasoning of the court focused solely on the Italmoda case.

The CJEU first observed that preventing tax evasion is an...