European Court of Justice, Case C-267/21, “Uniqa Asigurări SA”: Claims Settlement Services Provided in the Name and on Behalf of an Insurance Company Are Out of the Scope of Supplies of Services Carried Out as Part of the Certain Listed Professions

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that Article 56(1)(c) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of Value Added Tax (VAT) must be interpreted as meaning that claims settlement services, provided in the name and on behalf of an insurance company by a third-party company, are out of scope of the services of consultants, engineers, consultancy bureaux, lawyers, accountants, and other similar services. The litigation concerned years 2007 to 2009, i.e., before the 2010 VAT territoriality reform. The solution of the ECJ would therefore lead for these years as the default rule to the taxation of these services in the country of the supplier (former Article 43 of the VAT Directive).

European Court of Justice, Case C-294/21, “Navitours”: Passenger Transport Services May Be Taxed by an EU Member State Which Constitutes a Joint Territory

In a litigation where a Luxembourg company was rendering passenger transport on a stretch of the Moselle River making part of the German-Luxembourg Condominium, the ECJ has ruled that Articles 2(1) and 9(2)(b) amended by Council Directive 91/680/EEC of 16 December 1991 on the common system of VAT must be interpreted as meaning that a member state must tax passenger transport performed, by a service transport provider established in that member state (i.e., Luxembourg in the case), within a territory that, pursuant to an international treaty concluded between that member state and another member state, constitutes a joint territory under joint sovereignty of those two member states and that is not subject to any exception provided for by European Union (EU) law, provided that those services have not already been taxed by that other member state (i.e., Germany). The ECJ added that the taxation by one of the member states of these services prevents the other member state from taxing them in turn, without prejudice of a potential agreement between the two member states, provided non-taxation and double taxation are avoided.

Infringement Procedure Against Germany Closed by European Commission

The infringement procedure started in 2019 by the European Commission against Germany, related to the obligation imposed on online marketplaces and sellers to provide a certificate issued by the German tax authorities to the EU businesses selling goods through their electronic platform, was closed. This procedure was required to avoid joint and several liability for the VAT due on the goods sold when the beginning or end of the respective transport was in this territory.

The European Commission stated this obligation was an inefficient and disproportionate measure to combat VAT fraud and that more efficient measures were introduced by the VAT e-commerce package on 1 January 2021.