In Prunus Sarl v Directeur des Services Fiscaux (ECJ Case C-384/09) the tax authority ruled that a company (P) which had its registered office in France could not benefit from an exemption from tax on immovable property on the grounds that P’s effective centre of management was in the British Virgin Islands. P appealed contending that the relevant French legislation contravened Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
The case was referred to the ECJ which rejected P’s contentions holding that Article 63 did not preclude national legislation 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...
